Double lives - The multiverses collide
by Greatmar2
Summary: The battle between Good and Evil has escalated to a whole new level. Alagaesia and the modern world are at the center. Good has finally awoken from its curse and decided it is time to destroy Evil for once and for all. You don't know where they are. You don't know who or what they are. Until they come for you. You need to choose a side. Fight for whats right? Or for yourself?
1. Chapter 1

**Double lives**

Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I will say this once, I do not own Eragon, Alageasia or anything mentioned in or from the Inheritance cycle. Nor any other Fandom mentioned in the book.**

**Author Note: **Don't judge a book by its cover. Read the reviews. The story and my writing style get better later on. I can't edit these chapters without disturbing the already-existing plot. The first few chapters are bad, I admit, but they get better later on, I promise. They also get longer.

Please comment/review. Please attempt to make constructive criticism. Also, let me know via PM (so as not to spoil it for others) if you have any interesting ideas. This is mainly the introduction chapter for the other main character (yes, it won't be Eragon alone, possibly this one will be more 'main' than eragon). Thank you, Rethel34, for helping me with improvements to this chapter. (I shall be using "A/N" instead of "Author note").

* * *

Prologue

_It has been 40 years since the fall of the mad king and the departure of the Shadeslayer, the Kingkiller, the Argetlam, the Shur'rtagal, Eragon Bromsson. The New Order of Riders flourished over the years. Eragon, after much nervousness and apprehension on everyone's part (for they feared that there might be consequences), found out that one can change their destiny and returned to Alagӓesia after 'only' 30 years. Or maybe his destiny had still been true, since it felt like forever since he had been home. Also the Alagӓesia he had left, still struggling through the after-effects of the war, was not the one he returned to; but he rather discovered himself in a prosperous land where most racial disagreements had been erased by time and the majority lived happily, the annual contests were now not inter-racial, but inter-city. _

_Eragon, after his decades of learning the ways of magic and the world around him, finally gained the knowledge of magic to clear Vroengard of the majority of the magical side-effects left after the last stand of the Old Order. Eragon's human family has also gotten much older now. Roran, who Eragon had last seen as a youthful, healthy and strong warrior, is now an elderly man of about 60 and has three children, two of whom are married._

_The order has flourished, the Riders and dragons returning to the lands to the awe of many a person. Eragon, through his insatiable curiosity and perseverance in training, has become greatly powerful with mind, magic and might, able to take on two adult wild dragons in solo combat. When he sparred with them, he was also able to hold all of his ex**-**elven guards at bay; at once. His knowledge of magic has helped him keep strong, healthy and fit. _

_There has been an incident here or there with disobedient Riders, but nothing Galbatorix-scale. Still, Eragon liked to be prepared. Once the reconstruction of Vroengard had been completed, Arya wished to leave her position as Queen of the elves and join Eragon. She found she did not enjoy being Queen. She wanted to be free and able to travel where she pleased. That's why she became the Varden's courier in the war. But, due to the many distractions and tasks of her position and the lengthy politics of the Elves, she was only able to leave her position just under a year ago. _

_Arya's cousin, on her dad's side, had taken over position as King, along with his wife. The elves, despite becoming more open to other races in the past few decades, would not have their Queen marrying a half-elf, despite him being as famous as he was. The whole Order knew that the two were planning to get married sometime in the foreseeable future._

_But, enough of that. That world is not real, right? Let us focus on our world, not the lands of bedtime stories and legends. Our story starts with John Avner. He is just another grade 10 school kid. He was quite a logical thinker, being top in his class for IT (computers, mainly programming), and enjoying maths and science. He was never one for languages, but he survived. School life was getting tougher, especially the **huge** jump from grade 9 to 10. His marks had dropped since grade 9. Well, most of them… but he was making a recovery. This day is just another day in the many of the schoolteen's life._

* * *

John smiled as he looked at his timetable. The last lesson of the day. And it was IT. He walked into the class, smiling and greeting the teacher. The lesson passed in a blur. He hardly noticed when the lesson ended, since he was so engrossed in the piece of stubborn code that just wouldn't work. He noticed his classmates getting up and quickly e**-**mailed himself the work to continue it at home. He said his goodbyes, then walked down towards the parking lot. He didn't have hockey practise today. While he walked, he thought about what the solution to the problem might be. Why does Java have to be so fussy… he thought, sighing.

He saw his dad, Charles, a rather tall man with black hair and blue eyes, waiting to fetch him. His mom had to work late today, again. Being a vet was so…unpredictable. After getting in the car, John said "Hello dad!"

"Hello, John. How was your day?" came the response.

"Good and yours?"

"Good. Did anything interesting happen today?" On the way home, they exchanged pleasantries about their days. His younger brother was home, and his mom would be home in about an hour.

Once he had arrived home, he got changed into home-clothes, after being greeted by his brother. "Hello George," he said, grinning at his blonde haired, blue-eyed brother. His whole family had blue eyes, due to both parents having blue eyes in the first place. Though, they had different shades of blue. He remembered when he was 13 years old, in grade 7. Life had been so easy then...little did he know what was coming up in highschool.

He worked through his homework. Accounting first. It was a pain, but useful to know, and it would help him with getting into university. Once he had finished his written homework, he left his bed covered in books, planning to pack them away later. He then set up his laptop and opened his email and scrolled to the email he had sent himself. He opened the attachment and continued coding, trying to ignore the problem for now.

After about an hour of coding, compiling, getting an error, re-coding and then recompiling, he finally found the problem. _It is amazing how sometimes the simplest things escape your attention_ he thought. He had been incredibly stupid and put a '1' instead of an 'i' inside the testing condition for a loop. He was finished with the work at last. He emailed it to the IT teacher then closed his laptop lid, causing it to go to sleep. About sleep, he needed to go to sleep in an hour as well.

That's when John heard the diesel engine (Some of you might think diesel is expensive, but in South Africa, it is currently cheaper than petrol, and it is much more efficient than petrol) of his mom's car arriving in the front of the house. He rushed down the stairs and out the front door to say hello to his mom, followed by his brother and there was one big group hug, then they headed back inside. His dad was almost finished with supper, and his mom helped finish off the cooking. It was John's turn to lay the table, and he did so.

After supper, he said goodnight, then brushed his teeth, then cleared his bed of books, then and climbed into bed, and lay down, as he slowly falling asleep. He smiled at the fading image of his bookshelf, next to his bed. Did I forget to mention he loved to read?

As he slowly started to wake, he became aware of a grassy texture beneath him, and the sounds of many birds nearby. He opened his eyes to discover he was no longer in his bedroom…


	2. Chapter 2

**Double Lives – the multiverses collide**

Chapter 2

**A/N: **And on with the story. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. Also, later in the story I am planning to have more fandoms added, so in the meantime, why don't you guys have a vote for what's next (via PM of course). This chapter starts a bit before John wakes up.

* * *

Eragon yawned and stretched and instinctively reached his right arm out from under his blanket, feeling something hard, scaly and warm. He stroked it, smiling weakly, still half asleep. "Morning" he said.

_Morning, little one. _Came the response from his much-loved companion. He opened his eyes and saw his extremely high ceiling. Normally he would not have wanted such an unnecessarily large bedroom, with its door to rival the front gates of castles. Probably bigger than most of those, even. The gigantic, blue magnificent reptile beside him was the cause of that. He sat up, stretching with a yawn. As he got changed from his sleep-ware to his ordinary clothes, Saphira stretched cat-like nearby him. Once they were both done, he hugged her leg. His arms couldn't even fit around. Despite having lived with her so long, he still couldn't get over how big she was…and, though she slowed down, she didn't seem to entirely stop growing. On the island home he had found for the riders for the first 3 decades since the fall of Galbatorix he had needed to resize his room a couple times. Now on Vroengard he had taken that into account and this room, which was essentially his house in one massive room, with a few exceptions of certain rooms. It was almost big enough for Saphira to fly in, but not quite.

After his eating a rather small, but nutritious and fruity breakfast, he and Saphira headed out. Today was the scouting and capturing bases training for the first- and second-year trainee riders, and the camouflage and defence training for the third-years. As the saying went, "two birds with one stone", or possibly in this case three birds. He and a couple of the senior riders would be refereeing and guiding the training, but they would only interfere when necessary.

Essentially, the 3rd years had to split into teams and each set up hidden encampments with defences around flags that each team received. The flags were enchanted that when a scouting & attacking party, or a just an 'attacking party', managed to capture the flag, it would notify the referees. The defenders were allowed to set traps, but none of them were allowed to cause more than minor injuries, and the attackers were not allowed to injure the defenders beyond minor either. They also were not allowed to use their minds to explore their surroundings, neither searching nor defending. Breaking of the rules would result in disqualification. If there were any problems, they had but to contact a referee.

Eragon had come up with the training 'game' about 28 years ago. He revised all the rules and instructions in his head, before arriving at the already-assembled riders-in-training. They all had to hear the rules, whether for the first time or merely to refresh their memory. The defenders were rather excited, since this was the first time they would be defending. Once the usual session of questions and answers had passed, the 3rd group was allowed to disperse to set up their defensive locations. Half the referees also flew off on their dragons, following them.

An hour later, the attacking groups, 1 and 2, were allowed to begin their searches. By wordless agreement, all the referees cast spells to make themselves invisible and the games commenced. Eragon mounted Saphira, saying a few words of the Ancient Language and disappearing from sight. A shiver ran down his spine as he looked 'through' Saphira to the forest below.

* * *

John jumped up once he realise he was on dewy, wet grass. He looked around, taking in his strange surroundings. He was in a forest. There were certainly no forests with these kinds of trees nearby home. He wondered if he had been kidnapped. _Chloroform? _He wondered. That would explain him having no memory of getting here. But wouldn't he have woken if someone broke into the house? He was a light sleeper. Surely his parents would have noticed and done something? And why would someone kidnap him to just dump him in a random forest?

He sighed and began walking, hoping to get a feel for the area he was in, and possibly a clue as to where he was and why he was there. Suddenly he heard what sounded like distant and constant thunder. It was gradually getting louder. When it was at its peak, he had to cover his ears from the sound, but it soon faded. He was rather frightened by that, since from what sky he could see, there was hardly any clouds, and he had not seen anything unusual enough to have made the sound. This frightened him, and he began running, hoping that whatever terrible creature had made that sound would not catch him. _Stop it, John, _He thought to himself, _It's just your over-active imagination. _Yet he couldn't stop running.

It felt like he had run into treacle. Treacle that became rock hard a couple seconds after contact. He couldn't move, yet he could still breath… his mouth couldn't move either. He only had slight movement of the chest, just enough to breathe. He heard voices. A gruff one said "Hah! Got one already? My, my, They move a lot faster this year."

"Or it's because you didn't finish the concealment ward in time, Grut'tok." Came a clearly feminine voice of such quality that it could have been an actor's or poet's.

"Would you two just stop arguing?" came the third voice, a female voice, but this one sounded more… normal… "we need to go check up on the person. I'll go, you three watch for more."

John heard the soft crunching of leaves coming towards him. He looked in the direction they were coming from. Something about the thickness of the trees and bushes there was not natural. Suddenly a woman, auburn hair, brown eyes, shortish, looking in her mid-twenties, walked out of the bushes and stopped dead still when she saw him. "Who are you?" she asked, with an obviously surprised expression on her face, despite John not being able to talk. She was already contacting the nearest referee with her mind. Someone, clearly not a rider, since there was no dragon, nor did she recognise him, was on the island. No ships had been sighted in the last few days.

Three of the twelve referee's, Eragon among them, mentally nodded at Morgan's report. Their dragons turned and flew to the direction of Morgan, all deep in thought as to how to someone could have made it to the island.

**A/N:** There ya go, chapter 2. Hope you enjoyed it. Chapter 3 is coming tomorrow.


	3. Chapter 3

**Double Lives - the multiverses collide**

Chapter 3

* * *

John was panicking. He couldn't make a sound beside a 'mmmmm' sound in his throat, the type you make when trying to talk and you can't open your mouth at all, and the auburn haired woman was just staring at him. He had no clue what to do. Even if he did, he couldn't do anything. He struggled to keep his breathing steady, not wanting to use up his air if he did have a limited supply. But judging from the slight breeze, he had plenty of air.

He wondered what he was trapped in. Was it some sort of undetectable glass that had been poured onto him? That would explain everything except his ability to still hear, apparently, and the fresh air from the breeze. Just then he heard more thunderous thuds. But they were not as many as before.

Suddenly the woman, who was standing in front of him, moved. He had wondered if she was in some glass too until now. She walked around him, speaking strange words that made his spine shiver, but not from fright, but importance. After she had apparently finished, she shouted "Sylvan, Grut'tock, Kroten, come here!" And John heard more tussles coming through the bushes. There was, amongst the thuds from the sky, some from the ground, but not nearly as loud. Suddenly a huge vibration shook the ground. If he could see anything to have caused that, he would have thought it was either a heavy metal rock band briefly testing their speakers to the maximum bass volume, or a boulder had narrowly missed him. But he did not see anything besides forest and the woman. He also noticed the thudding from the sky had stopped.

That's when the owners of the footsteps arrived. He would have screamed and run if he could. The first two newcomers were not too bad. She looked like a normal human that may have just undergone plastic surgery. Upswept, catlike features, with high slanting eyebrows. Also pointed ears. He had never seen someone want those, but oh well… she had black hair and blue eyes. Just like the first woman, she wore old fashioned clothes. For someone who was as… 'fashionable' as to undergo plastic surgery, she certainly didn't dress the part.

The second was a very short man. Obviously lacking in growth hormones. He had seen a couple dwarfs at home before. This was nothing new. He had black hair, but John couldn't see his eye colour beneath his bushy eyebrows.

It was the other five arrivals that troubled John. There was a massive beast. It looked like a very very ugly overgrown human with horns. He had no clue why someone would want to look like that. Maybe it was a costume, but it seemed too real.

But it was not that creature that made him want to run for his life. It was the four behind it. If he had been in his right mind, he would have recognised them as dragons after a bit, since he had read some books with dragons in. But he was freaking out. The massive scaled and winged reptiles made the previously big and ugly horned person look like a pin before four bowling balls. Let alone the two normal-ish humans. Red, green, purple, and white creatures.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, three more of the creatures appeared in a circle around him. He saw in the corners of his eye a piece of blue, then there was also a black one and a purple one. He panicked, trying escape. He was going to die. Eaten by these beasts. Why didn't the people help him! Did they also know it was hopeless? He tried to move but just couldn't. There was also his constant "mmm-mmm! Mmmmmmm!"s while he was attempting to scream.

* * *

Eragon and the two other referees had landed around the person trapped in one of defence team C's magical immobilisation wards. After Morgan had disabled the others, of course. He didn't want to tire her out in case there was a fight. He had landed behind the person, hopefully Saphira's size would not panic the person and also be a surprise if he tried to run. While the other members of Morgan's team arrived, he inspected the person from the points of view of himself, and his fellow referees, an urgal and a dwarf. The person was medium high for a human, which he appeared to be, had blonde-brown hair and blue eyes. He was dressed in strange clothes that looked more comfortable to sleep in that go for a trip to an impossible-to-reach-except-for-dragons-and-a-few-s hips island. The person also looked young, in his mid-teens.

After the rest of Morgan's squad arrived, Eragon and the. other referees ended their invisibility spells, materialising out of thin air. That had not been a good idea. The boy panicked. Eragon half expected him to faint, but he didn't. In the boy's panicked state, talking to him would be useless.

Eragon tried to reach out to the boy's mind to calm him, but the boy was so panicked that Eragon couldn't gain entry without using force. He didn't want to scare the boy further, in case he would cause him to use magic without words. That would be dangerous especially with someone panicking and unable to focus enough to properly do it. The person must have been a magic user to get here. But something about the nature of the panic disturbed him. Most would panic if they were caught red handed by a group of seven dragons and riders, but this person was freaking out to the max.

Eragon quietly said a few sentences in the Ancient Language to put the person into a Psychosis-like state. Not unconscious, but it slowed his mind so that, while still panicked, the worlds would appear to be moving at a blur around him, unable to register his senses.

Eragon disliked rendering a complete stranger utterly helpless, but he would need to get the person where he could calm down at least enough for a decent conversation. He also didn't want the person trying anything stupid. Using magic, Eragon freed th person from immobilisation and bought him up to rest on Saphira. Eragon then, using another spell, made sure the person would not fall off nor get impaled bet one of Saphira's ivory spikes running down her spine. They took off, heading for the city's building designed especially for unexpected/unwelcome guests. Squad C followed, even though they didn't need to, they were curious.

* * *

Suddenly the world around John shifted. He could no longer focus on one thing, it was just a blur. He felt himself moving, but it felt distant. As if his body and nervous system were hundred of kilometers away from his brain on a bad connection. He could move, but as he reached for a blur, it was gone before he even got close to touching it. Suddenly the blurs stopped moving. He was in somewhere grey and cold. He tried focusing on something, anything but nothing happened. Suddenly, as if a light switch had turned on, he things looked normal again. Things were not blurs. He was in a grey room apparently made out of some kind of stone. There was a wooden table in the center. He was lying awkwardly on a soft bed. It was not the most comfortable, but at least it had a mattress. And a blanket for that matter. He looked around, trying to find where the blurs and the huge beasts had gone. They were nowhere near. He sighed with relief. Either he was dead, or somehow the blurs had saved him.

He thought about the creatures. They resembled many different pictures and drawings he had seen on the Internet and in books. Those must have been dragons. But what were they doing here? They could have been animatronics (robots, for those who don't know), but as with the big horned person, they looked too real. Maybe he had stumbled across a secret research facility? Maybe they were improving animatronics and making glass breathable and invisible? There was no link between those. And it didn't explain the blurs. Maybe they had gassed him for the blurs. And they were working on improving things in general, like advanced chemical warfare as well! He ran to the door and named on it, shouting "Let me out! My parents will find me! The police will stop you!" He waited, but there was no response. Or did those footsteps outside the door count as a response? He ran to the bed and covered himself with the blanket. He heard the door open with a clang and someone walked in. A male voice said "Please come out from under there. I would like to talk to you." He stayed under the blanket, even though it would offer him no protection, he didn't want to see his captor. The voice repeated the sentences again, but this time there was something… different about it. He found it impossible, despite his best efforts, to resist the voice. He got up and sat down on the opposite side of the table as the person. This person also had upswept features, but not as much as the woman before, and pointed ears. His brown eyes seemed to e boring holes in John. Was it a fashion amongst top secret researchers to have weird clothes and plastic surgery?

"I'm Eragon Bromsson. Who are you?" The person asked.

"I'm John Avner. Wouldn't you know who I was before you kidnapped me?"

"No, you were in such a state of panic, I couldn't tell."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Look, don't play the fool with me. Otherwise I will have to get the information from your mind by force. I would like to avoid that."

"Ok. Ok. Sheesh." _Who do these people think they are_? He thought, _what about my rights?_

"Now, how did you get here?"

"I don't know some blurs took me, I guess." It sounded pretty crazy, but it was all he knew.

"That was us, I mean before the blurs. How did you get on the island."

"Island? What? Where?"

"I asked you not to fool around, lets try it again. This is your last chance. How did you get onto this island, Vroengard?"

"I'm not fooling around! I've never heard of this apparent island. You stop playing mind games with me! I want to go home!"

The person across the table from him massaged his temples, then said "I gave you a chance."

John wondered what he meant by that. He didn't see anything happening. Suddenly he felt a pressure on his mind. He had no clue what it was. Memories rises unbidden and played over. _This is not happening!_ He thought, or tried to if his mind had been his own. How did they have such advance technology and the world didn't even know about it?!

* * *

Eragon, after searching the person's mind he quickly found out that the person had been telling the truth. He selected a few memories at random, but couldn't make any sense of what was going on. Wherever this person was from, it was an alien place to Eragon. He cut the mind-searching short, compared to what he normally would had done. Just before he left the person's mind, he got him to lower his head to the table so he would not knock it when Eragon left his mind.

He got up, severing the telepathic connection between the two, and said "Thank you, I shall be back soon." He headed to the council room, where he an the twelve highest ranking riders would discuss this curious matter. He mentally contacted each one, to tell them to come immediately, though he and Arya's connection lingered for a bit longer, wordless emotion trickling through the link.

Once they were all there, the council session began with Eragon relating what he had found, which none of them could really grasp that well.

* * *

**A/N**: Chapter three complete! Please leave a review! Try be constructive. Hope you enjoyed it. Expect Chapter 4 soonish.

Treeune Trabeer, As i said on chapter 1, I was rushed for time. I did it in one an a half hours. And though I only saw your review now, there your 2000+ words chapter is (chapter 3). And what did you mean by boundaries?


	4. Chapter 4

**Double lives – the multiverses collide**

Chapter 4

After much debate, the council had not gotten far. Eragon's patience was being drawn thin. "Enough." He said, interrupting the current speaker, a human Hendrik. "Let us look at what we do know, we can talk to the stranger in person to find out more, instead of speculating, which gets us nowhere.

"John Avner is young, a teenager, and thus can't pose much of a threat. He is most certainly not from Alagaesia, as far as we know. He does not have magic abilities, although some of the things I have seen in his memories seem magical. One, for example was a massive frame or box like thing that ha moving pictures. It couldn't have been scrying. He merely used a rectangular object to change the moving pictures. That brings us to the other problem. Wherever he is from, although apparently not magical, is much more advanced than us.

"Along with their apparent lack of magic, we also have many creatures they don't know. John was having a panic attack when he saw the dragons. That is all I was able to discern. The rest escapes our collective understanding. Any questions or factual information to add?"

One of the council members, an Urgal named Telankus, cleared his throat then said "And by many creatures, you mean by extension the races of the Urgalgra, Elves and Dwarves? Obviously they have humans. He is one."

"Yes, you are correct, as far as I know. I didn't search his mind too deeply, as his surface memories were confusing enough."

The other elf in the room, Svendör, nodded, then he spoke "Wouldn't it be best to bring him here, you keep just enough mental contact with him to know when he lies, and we ask him ourselves?"

"Yes, I was planning to suggest that after all the questions had finished. Are there anymore?" He paused, and when the room stayed silent, he said "Ok. I shall go get him. Now, he is probably going to be easily startled, so try not to scare him."

* * *

John had no clue what time it was. He was very tired, but sleep eluded him. The days inexplicable events bounced around inside his head. He had no idea what to do or say. So, he lay sleepless on his new bed, staring at the ceiling in his otherwise nondescript room, bed and table aside.

His reverie was broken when he heard a voice outside said something in that strange language again, then the lock of the door slid back. The door was opened and the same voice from earlier said "Come, the council and I need to speak to you?" _So now mad scientists have councils?_ he thought. He didn't bother waiting to be asked the second time. He still remembered what happened last time he had ignored the man who called himself Eragon. _Spelled remarkably the same as Dragon, what a coincidence_ he thought, wordlessly getting up and walking to Eragon.

He followed the man outside the building, walking through an apparently abandoned town. _That would explain the room. They merely took an abandoned medieval town. _he thought. But that didn't explain the sheer massiveness of many of the buildings, nor the doorways.

Little did he know, there were riders and dragons all around, watching him. Eragon had asked them to keep quiet while he took the strange person to the council room. His invisibility spell didn't stop sounds, well, this one at least.

John saw the sun. It was clearly past noon. He had never been good at guessing the time from the sun, but he thought it was between 3 and 5 PM. After walking past many impressive, and surprisingly not run down, buildings, John and the man arrived at another, rather grand looking building. They walked in and John saw three of each of the types of people that he had seen in the forest. Maybe they did that to distinguish between their job or professions or ranks? There were the normal humans, the dwarves, the plastic-surgery humans and the big… horned ones... They were all watching him, and he felt rather uncomfortable.

There was an empty chair at the centre of the circle, and another in the circle that the one at the centre was facing. Eragon went and took the one at the edge of the circle. It was slightly more elevated than the others. So, apparently this Eragon was their leader.

John presumed the chair at the centre was for him, so he went ahead and sat down. If automatic seatbelts popped out and grabbed him and held him there, he wouldn't have been surprised, but they didn't, of which he was glad.

It was then that he realised that since the blurs, he had not seen any others of those creatures. Dragons, they were called. It also occurred to him, that since these people seemed to be trying to imitate a medieval fantasy land, they plastic-surgery ones could be aiming to be those humanoids called Elves.

Eragon nodded and allowed the council to begin their questions, on at a time. Svendör started with "Hello John, we are just going to ask you a few questions. We don't mean you any harm."

"Uhh…ok…" said John, nervous.

"Where do you come from, as in where do you live?"

"Silveredge, in South Africa." When all John got as a response was confused stares, he added "Earth?"

"So you are from another continent?"

"Well, which continent is this?"

"Alagaesia."

"Never heard of it." Said a very confused and creeped out John.

Svendör glanced at Eragon, who nodded his head. John was not lying. Svendör decided to let someone else try ask.

A dwarf lady leaned forward and asked "How did you get here?"

"I don't know…until you asked that question I thought you had kidnapped me from home!"

"Now why would we do that?"

"I don't know. What's with all the fancy stuff? Is this some top secret research lab or something?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Nevermind" John was angry and wanted to shout at them about his rights and how they should respect them and how they had no right to hold him there. From what he had seen already, they could get rid of him easily. Even make him do stuff, like that Eragon fellow had. Were they doing this to try mind control him? Was he their Guinea pig? Were they going to try take over the world? _I read too many fiction books._ He thought. It was almost as if he was in one. But that was not possible, right?

"Ok then…" said the Dwarf and sat down again, confused.

* * *

This question and question, and occasionally an answer, session went on for what felt like hours, perhaps it was, but due to both parties' misunderstanding of each other, they did not get very far. Eventually Eragon decided this was in vain, and asked Arya to take John to a decent guest room. She nodded and took him back towards the building that he had come from originally, but this time to a different room. One much more… homey. It had a much more comfortable bed, a fireplace, tapestries on the walls and a carved roundtable at the centre of the room. Eragon had also organised that there would be a decent dinner for one on the table.

Eragon sighed and waited for Arya to come back, then said to all those in attendance "It seems he is not going to speak. I sensed a lot of distrust and anger from him. He thinks we are lying and keeping him captive against his 'rights', whatever those are. I ask if Arya and Tasoula could accompany him tomorrow. You must allow him to get used to the place and not feel threatened, if we are to get any answers out of him. Also, don't introduce him straight away to dragons, make it gentle. I leave the planning up to you two." The elf and human ladies nodded and then Eragon said "Council dismissed." They dispersed to their separate houses for the night.

* * *

John enjoyed the meal. The food seemed less processed than at home. It seemed natural. He started to wonder if these people were in fact not lying about not being scientists, and they were actually medieval, though they had not known what that term meant. He lay down in the bed after having washed himself in the non-modern wash tub in a section of his room. After a while he fell asleep, despite his head not wanting to quiet all the thoughts floating around in it. But he managed to sleep, after some time.

He awoke to a familiar smell. Different to the one he had fallen asleep to. He was in his bed, in his room, in his home. He sat up, rubbing his eyes. "What a dream…" he mumbled to himself.

**A/N: **I hope you enjoyed my 4th chapter. The 5th will be up roughly tomorrow. Please review! I want to know what you guys think of my story! Oh, and for those of you who are going to go to google maps, Silveredge doesn't actually exist irl. **Note: Chapter 1 has been updated and lengthened.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Double Lives - the multiverses collide****  
**

**Chapter 5**

John sighed, that was the longest dream he has had for ages. He got up and got changed from his pyjamas to his school clothes. He then walked to the pantry and got out some corn flakes to eat. He poured a big bowl full of them, then put in a spoonful of sugar and added milk. As he was eating, his brother and mom, Helena, came into the kitchen. "Morning." He said, "How did you sleep?"

"Good, and you?" Asked his mom.

"I slept quite deeply. I had a very long dream…"

"Oh, cool. What was it? Or has it faded already? It's annoying how dreams fade so fast…" said George, John's brother.

"It would take quite a while to tell you. And surprisingly, it hasn't faded. Mom, how often do dreams not fade?"

"I don't know, dear. I didn't need to study dreams for being a vet. But I think some will last longer than others. It should definitely be faded by the end of school."

"Oh ok."

"So what was it about?" Asked George impatiently.

"I'll tell you on the way to school. We need to get ready now."

"Ok."

John went to brush his teeth, then got his bags packed. He would be doing Hockey today. Tuesdays and Thursdays were hockey days. Today was Thursday.

It was time to go to school, dad said goodbye and left for work while John and his mom waited for George to finish his last minute packing.

George raced down the stairs and to the car, after packing. John and Helena got in the car with a sigh. Once Helena had started the car and started driving to drop the two at school, George first, George asked "So, has your dream faded yet?"

"Nope." Said John.

"Then can you tell me it?"

"Fine. I'll give you the short version. I woke up in a forest and these strange people an creatures captured me. At first I thought they were top secret or mad scientists. That they were trying to imitate medieval times, but much more advance and fancy. But the more I spoke to their 'council', it seemed like they were truly medieval. I don't know which country or continent it was in. They said we were on an island called Vroengard, off the coast of the continent Alagaesia. "

"Oh. Cool." Said George. After a few more minutes of silence, the car stopped and George got out, saying goodbye to John and Helena.

The drive to John's school was pretty quiet. John's mom seemed to be deep in thought, aside from the couple phone calls she got from clients. Once they arrived, John said bye ten got his bags from the boot, heading to the school.

* * *

School flew by. He couldn't stop thinking about the odd non-fading dream. Accounting was easy that lesson because they didn't have to do any work. The teacher was still explaining a new concept. Maths was challenging, they were working on statistics and probabilty. Afrikaans was… well, Afrikaans… English was fun. The teacher was so funny and he always found English a good stress relief.

At break, he chatted with his friends. "Hey John, did you figure out that problem in IT?" asked Cornelius.

"Yeah. I made a silly mistake." Said John.

"Glad you managed to fix it." said Emily.

"Yeah."

"Hey, have you seen the latest version of minecraft?" Asked Frank.

"Frank, I don't play games during the week."

"Oh…yeah…forgot. Sorry."

"It's ok." said John. The group of friends carried on chatting for the rest of break.

After break, IT was easy, with no unexcpected problems. Science was fun. His class was ahead of the rest, so they did a bit of a quantum physics for fun. At 3:00, school nded.

For the first half of hockey, which was an hour, they did fitness. Running laps around the field, push-ups, sit-ups, suicides (not literally, it was a form of fitness). Even though the joke was old, every practise they did suicides, John commented on how it would be far more effective to use a gun for suicides, instead of a field. Running yourself to death.

Then it was skills time. He was in the C team, so not much was expected from the team, but he always wished he could do this faster or that better or do that amazing trick. But, he couldn't.

After a sweaty hockey match, John waited for his mom to arrive. On the way home, he and his mom chatted about what each of them had done that day. Even though he had lived with her for 16 years, he still got the shivers when she went into detail about her operations on dogs, cats and horses.

Right after arriving home, John went to shower. He did not want to be stinky and sweaty anymore. He threw his clothes in the washing basket in the bathroom and got in the shower.

After showering and getting into his pyjamas, he did his homework which went much quicker today, which was good since she had 2 hours less to do it than yesterday, on arriving home at 5:30 after getting stuck in traffic for half an hour.

After supper he brushed his teeth, then climbed into bed. As he was lying there it occurred to him that the dream still had my faded. It was as clear as if it was yesterday. He shrugged and drifted off to sleep.

* * *

John awoke to a a thud. His knee had hit something big, cold and hard. He opened his eyes while rubbing his sore knee. His knee had hit a wall. But there wasn't a wall next to his bed! He sat up and looked around. He was in the room back on the medieval/mad scientist place. What was he doing here again! It was only a dream…

* * *

**A/N: **Please review. I want to know what you guys think!


	6. Chapter 6

**Double Lives – the multiverse collide**

Chapter 6

**A/N:** Expect more updates during weekends, than during the week, because of school. Please let me know what you guys think, and if you have any suggestions or ideas, also tell me, but maybe PMs would be better so as not to ruin it for other people. I had one guest review that I had to remove due to spoilers. (Yes, thank you guest: suggestion 1: good idea, I'll keep it mind. suggestion 2: shhh ;), I was planning that already. XD)

* * *

Arya stood by the entrance to the guest building. She rubbed Firnen's snout and said "Go now, I will call you later." Firnen nodded and walked around to the other side of the town, along with the other dragons, later to be called once Arya and Tasoula felt that John was prepared to see them and the other dragons.

Some had questioned the necessity of Eragon's plan, but Eragon merely responded that he did not know the culture of John's origins, and wanted to make a good impression on him. That culture could be as easily offended as the elves, for all he knew (at which he got a glare from Arya, which she couldn't hold for long). He had asked Arya and Tasoula to show John around, slowly introducing him to things more and more 'strange'. The dragons would probably be last.

Arya reached into the building with her mind, waited till John was awake, then headed to his room, where, after waiting for him to get ready, she knocked on the door.

* * *

John got out of the bed and looked around the room in which he had been last night, or was it the night before? He was confused. This shouldn't be happening. If he hadn't been kidnapped and was somehow finding himself in a different place each time he woke up, maybe these people could also be for real. He found a set of clothes that were a similar style to the ones he had seen most others at this place wearing. He decided that, despite being odd, they would be better to walk around in than pyjamas.

Once he had gotten changed, he folded his pyjamas and put them on his pillow, then there was a knock on the door. "Come in." he said loudly, so that whoever it was, probably Eragon, could hear him. He wondered why they bothered knocking. Then the door opened. No locking bold sliding back… _They trusted me enough not to lock me in? That's a surprise…_ he thought. Then he saw who had opened the door. It was two women, a normal one and an 'elf'. He recalled faintly seeing them in the 'council' yesterday.

"Morning John, how did you sleep?" asked the 'elf' one.

"Morning…?" John trailed off, not knowing the person's name.

"Arya"

"Morning Arya, I slept…ok…I guess…"

"Was there a problem?"

"No. Well, not anything you could have changed." _Or could they? _He wondered.

"Ok…Come, me and Tasoula wish to show you around our city." Arya gestured for John to follow and he did. He followed them as they walked around the city. He saw many people there, all shapes and sizes. He was surprised by how many people there were. He had seen very few yesterday. He looked around and saw there were roughly equal numbers of all four types of people.

He thought about the possibility that these people were, in fact, actually medieval and had strange creatures and somehow could trap him in air and read his mind. He tried to think about the place as if that were the case, but still had some trouble. He decided the only way to answer his many questions was to ask someone who knew the answers. "Are you actually an…elf? Or is it plastic just surgery?" asked, his curiosity causing him to forget politeness.

"I have no idea what plastic surgery is, but I assure you I am an elf" replied Arya.

"Oh…then what are those?" he asked, pointing at one of the big people, a hulking mass with bulging muscles and long curving rams horns. It was so tall that made the majority oyt ghost people look like dwarves.

"They are Urgals. They are a strong and large race. Certain members are what we refer to as 'Kull' and the Kull often become large enough to even dwarf Urgals."

"Oh. And those are dwarves?" John asked, looking at a group of short, stumpy people.

"Yes."

"Ok."

They walked around a bit, Arya showing John many buildings from the outside, I including the council building; a massive piece of architecture with carved arches and beautiful stained glass windows; many houses, all of which were oversized, with massive doors; watchtowers, on the edge of the town, standing tall enought to actually be taller than the houses, which John had thought impossible for these people, they were also beautifully designed; libraries, collectively full of mor books than John had seen in his life; and a hatchery/egg storage, this one was quite nondescript, the walls seemed more for insulating than design than most of the buildings he had seen. When John asked what kind of egg was kept in there, he was told he would see later.

Then they went to the training grounds. John's jaw dropped at the amazing swordsmanship he saw there. He couldn't even follow the blades of Elves. By now, he was convinced that they were really medieval with a little extra. Then he found out that it was not only a little extra.

* * *

Arya showed the strange human at round the city, patiently answering all his questions, and trying got ignore the times he was impolite. The boy reminded her of someone when that someone was much younger. Eragon. Eragon had always been so full of questions, often coming up with more questions from the answers.

When he seemed to accept that their world was a bit different than theirs, she broke the news to him. Theirs was actually quite different. She told him first that in this world there was magic, and when, of course, he didn't believe her, she proved it to him by levitating a stone to in front of his face. "How do you do that!" He exclaimed.

"Magic, as I said." Arya answered.

"And how do you control magic?"

"With the Ancient Language."

"It is a language designed for the control of magic. When speaking in it, one can not lie."

"Wow! How does it do that?!"

"That is a question for another time" she said, letting the stone drop, "Now, I shall tell you about and show you what kind of eggs we keep. Dragon eggs."

"What!" Said John in disbelief, "So those thinga were dragons. Why do you guys hatch dragons?"

"We don't hatch them, they hatch for us. When a dragon lays eggs and wants one to be ridden, it gives it's egg to us and we say a spell over it that will keep it alive in its egg until it finds the perfect rider for it. That's what everyone here is. We are the Order of the Dragon Riders."

John stood there speechless, and Arya, after letting him to remember how to walk again, led him to a field where there were a ton of dragons, of every colour imaginable. A huge green one walked up, and bent its head down towards John, Arya and Tasoula. An orange dragon follows the purple one. It was also very big, but not as big. The green dragon moved its head to John and John felt its very hot breath blasting onto him every time it breathed out. _Hello John, I am Firnen. _Came a deep, resonating voice in his head. _  
_

"What! Was that you?!" John asked the green dragon in front of him.

_Yes, John, it was me. Contrary to popular belief amongst those who don't know dragons too well, we can think just like you or Arya or Tasoa, or any other of the humanoid races._ Came the voice.

"Woah. That's cool. May I?" He asked, reaching his hand out to touch Firnin's scaly nose.

_Yes, for a bit. _The dragon replied. John reached his hand out and stroked Firnen's nose, feeling the rough scales that shone a beautiful forest green in the afternoon sunlight. After a little bit he stopped, to give the dragon space again.

"This is so cool." He said. Suddenly John heard the _thud thud thud_ sound he had heard before, but this time there was 'one' of it. He looked up and saw something flying towards them. Then the biggest dragon he had seen so far landed nearby, and a person could be climbing off the blue creature.

"Eragon?" Said John as the figure walked towards him.

"Yes," said Eragon once he was closer, "When an egg, that had had the magical blessing spoken over it, hatches for you, you become bonded with the dragon. This is Saphira, my dragon," Eragon explained, gesturing towards the immense blue dragon.

Eragon and John talked for some time after that, both talking rather eagerly to learn about the other, but this time they both explained themselves better so that the other understood. They talked so long, in fact, once they were done, it was supper time, and after supper, they headed to bed, John once again waking up in his home.

* * *

Redemption Awaits: Me and him/her have had a PM discussion. I was not aware that his/her story existed until now, and shall refrain from reading it, because despite good intentions, reading his/her story would make some ideas from it stick in my head. Also, from what he/she has told me, my story will be different later on. We also established that my idea was original, seeing as I had no influence from his/hers.

eragon0123: I extended the chapter by 584 words just for you. :) No worries, I was going to anyway. I think I should probably stop rushing to get the chapter done each day after doing my homework. I shall work on it over 2 or 3 days after school then only upload it so as it improve the quality.


	7. Chapter 7

**Double Lives – the multiverses collide**

Chapter 7

A/N: Thank you guys for the reviews, favourites and follows. Glad there are people out there that are enjoying my Fan Fiction.

John woke up with renewed energy. The day passed very quickly. He focused enough in class and to talk to others, but he was not completely focused. His mind kept returning to the strange new world that he had discovered. Others might have noticed that his mind and focus was not entirely there, at here and now, but they didn't say anything. He couldn't wait to go there again. It was so interesting. Luckily for him, school ended early on Fridays. He arrived home, and after doing all the daily routines, he headed to bed at 8:00, which was earlier than usual. When his parents asked why he wanted to go to bed so early, he said that he was tired. They looked dissatisfied with his answer and asked "Why are you tired?"

"Tough day at school," He said. They still didn't look happy with his answer, but didn't press him more. He had integrity.

It took forever for him to fall asleep. He tried to go to sleep faster, but he just ended up making it take longer, though he eventually managed to fall asleep.

John woke up. As he got dressed, he wondered what caused this strange 'world switching' to happen to him. He wondered if it was happening to anyone else.

He went to the door and opened it. It was not locked. He found a tray of fruit just outside the door and took it back into his room, where he sat down and ate it.

Once he had done eating, he headed out his room. He stood a little distance away from the building he had stayed in, watching the many dragons and Riders passing by. He got a couple stares or odd glances, but most just ignored him, continuing with their own business.

Suddenly John became aware of a presence behind him slightly to the right. The presence did not move on, so he turned around. "AHH!" He shouted, jumping back, "Don't do that!"

The blue dragon merely snorted while it's rider, standing beside the dragon burst into laughter. Once Eragon had caught his breath again, he said "Dragons, despite their size can be incredibly stealthy. How else could they hunt for and catch food?"

"Oh. Please don't do that again." He said, smiling nervously at Saphira.

_Ok, but if you want to be a rider, you need to be more aware of your environment._

"What? Me? A rider?" Said John.

"Shh, Saphira, I wanted to tell him," said Eragon, "Yes, seeing as you are here, we might as well see if a dragon would hatch for you. If you are fine with it, of course."

"Of course I'm fine with it. It would be awesome!"

"I'm glad you are excited," Eragon said, grinning.

"Oh…there is something I need to tell you."

Eragon's face lost a measure of its joy, suddenly becoming more serious. "Yes?" he asked.

"It only started three days ago, or six, depending on how you look at it, but I found out that each time I go to sleep, I switch between this world and my world. That's how I ended up here in the first place, I guess. I was wondering if it happens to anyone else, or if you knew anything else about it."

"Oh…" said Eragon, he paused for some time, then continued, "neither I nor Saphira know anything about this. I shall consult our archives, then talk with you later, but let's first continue to the hatchery, to see if a dragon will hatch for you."

"Ok," said John as he followed Eragon and Saphira. After some time of walking past many large buildings, with many different designs and patters, but they were predominantly made of stone, with glass for windows, and wood for the frames, including doors and windows. Then they arrived at the plain building with the thick walls and doors. The doors seemed thick and heavy enough to be a bank vault's. That made sense. There were also no handles on the door.

Eragon began chanting in that strange language again, the Ancient Language, but this time, unlike before, the words and sentences vanished from his mind straight after he heard them. _Must be some spell to make sure that no one who over hears the…'password', or sentence, remembers it…_ he thought to himself. This world was getting more and more interesting. As Eragon chanted, John heard thuds for the door that sounded a bit like bolts being drawn back. After a little bit, the doors slid open silently, this was surprising due to their size.

The thick walls were almost enough to form a passage of their own, but not quite. John walked in after Eragon and Saphira with a look of amazement plastered to his face. The room glowed with a diffused light, with no apparent source. The walls at first appeared to be set with many different coloured, and sized, stones, giving the wall a very rough appearance. But John soon realised these stones were, in fact, eggs. Their colours and sizes varied greatly, and it was a remarkable sight. In the centre there stood a golden metal humanoid with a head shaped like a dragon's, but otherwise it resembled a human. It appeared to be made of metal, and was carrying a golden sword the same colour as its body. It walked towards them, clearly watching John, but didn't seem to bother about Eragon or Saphira. Eragon gestured to the metal-dragon-man and said "John, this is Cuaroc. He protects the eggs."

"Hello Cuaroc," said John nervously, he looked at Eragon "How does he work?"

"Magic and a couple other things, you don't need to know those things yet. Ok, so when you are ready, just walk slowly around the room, and if an egg starts shaking and squeaking, quickly and gently take it out of the shelf and sit down on the ground and wait for it to hatch. When the dragon comes out, touch it with your preferred hand. The bonding process is painful, but definitely worth it," said Eragon. Despite his warnings, he, or another elder rider, often had to catch brand-new Riders with magic to stop them from hurting themselves as they collapsed semi-unconscious from the pain. But then again, usually when the recruiting was done, it was in tents that were padded and well set up, not in the actual hatchery, but anyway…

John nodded and headed further into the room, hearing metallic thuds as Cuaroc turned to watch him. He started from one edge of the 'passage', the left hand side of the passage, moving slowly clockwise, touching each egg he could reach individually for a couple seconds. He marvelled at the vibrant, and sometimes not so vibrant, colours of the eggs.

He had almost gone around the entire room before a large blue egg a bit ahead of him, not the orange one he had been touching at the time, started rocking back and forth in its shelf. High pitched squeaks came from it. Remembering Eragon's instructions, John rushed forward and took the egg, placing it gently on the ground in front of him as he sat down. He sat there, eagerly watching the egg as its once-perfect and smooth shell became riddled with cracks, soon a tiny little snout appeared, tapping away at the inside of the eggshell. He smiled as the little dragon, deep, royal blue on the body, and a cobalt blue on the wings, about the size of a cat, climbed out of its egg that had encased it for so long. It was a bit darker blue than most of the other blue eggs he had seen in the room. He reached out with his right hand towards it, and it looked at him, pausing briefly, before stepping forward and letting the top of its head touch the palm of his hand.

There was an explosion of pain. It felt like his blood had been set on fire. It felt like water probably did, if it had feelings, when you dropped a kilogram of caesium into it, but, fortunately without the explosion and the shattering of the glass bowl/container, or in this case, his skin. He screamed in a short outburst before the pain became so unbearable, that he couldn't do anything. He didn't even know if he remembered to breathe. Neither did he notice when he was magically floated to his new residence, the trainees' dormitory building, baby dragon with him.

After what seemed like hours, even days of pain, John finally became aware of his own body and his surroundings again. In truth, only about a hour had passed, but he did not know. Feeling returned to his limbs, still in the after-shock from the sudden pain. He opened and closed his hands, trying to form fists, but struggling to keep them tight. He noticed a constant pressure on his chest, which he had previously accredited to his malfunctioning nervous system. He opened his eyes, and there it was. A baby, blue dragon was sleeping upon his chest.

He lifted his right hand, moving it slowly towards the dragon's head, but stopped just before touching it, unsure whether there would be an ocean of pain again. He moved his hand away from the dragon again, not wanting to touch it just in case. His hand was still sore, even though the rest of his body was feeling better, his hand felt like it had an inflamed spider bite on the palm. He turned his hand around and looked at his palm. There was a large silvery mark covering most of his palm. He scratched at it, but didn't help. He also couldn't get it off, unlike most scabs. He usually didn't scratch at scabs, but this one was different. After a while, he figured out it was more like birthmark, but he hadn't been born with it. He sighed, giving up on scratching it.

As John thought about what had just happened, he noticed something. His mind felt...open...it felt like his mind could just float away from his body, into the wide world, nothing to restrain it. He quickly put his head under the pillow, but this seemed to have no effect, so he tried pulling the blankets further up, over his head. There was still no difference, so he came out from under the blankets, which had been getting rather stuffy, and sat up then looked around the room. The dragon was now sitting up, looking at him, since he had woken it up from pulling the blankets around. He also sensed something else, from the direction of the dragon. A wisp of thought. It almost seemed like he had two minds, but was only in control of one. Or maybe since they were separate minds, each one operated separately, but where was this other mind coming from.

It could only be the dragon. But this was different than when Saphira and Firnen had spoken to him, merely hearing their voice-thoughts that they sent him. It was like this mind was his, and his mind was its. They both could feel all each other's thoughts, emotion and, in the case of John, his memories. Their minds also felt at once...comfortable with each other, a perfect match, the dragon's mind not feeling strange and alien to him as Saphira's and Firnen's had to him, though he had trouble understanding the thought processes of the young dragon, since it seemed to try communicate to him in images and feelings. The main feeling he could understand from it was that of hunger.

He could have sworn the dragon attempted to smile. It stretched, a bit like a cat, then walked towards him. When it reached him, he tensed as it brushed against his arm, but nothing happened, except for him feeling the rough scales of the dragon, he relaxed somewhat and started stroking the dragon. Oddly, he felt a tingling sensation coming from his hand where he touched the dragon. He turned his hand around to see the silvery blob on his hand. He sighed, unsure what to do. The dragon rubbed against his arm again, wanting to be stroked some more, and he carried on, his fingers every now and then twitching due to the tingling feeling.

After a while, the dragon's feeling of hunger became more intense, and it climbed off the bed, going around the room, sniffing, probably looking for meat. Shortly it found a tray near the door which had chunks of meat, pre-sliced. The hungry dragon guzzled down the pile of meat in a matter of minutes, despite the amount there had been.

Then John realised something, only now due to his focus having been on not drifting away from his body and on the dragon, he was in a different room than the one before. It had many of the same furnishing, but it was somewhat larger, including the door, and had some extra furniture. There was also a large padded circle, sunken into the ground in the corner of the room.

The little dragon was trying to get his attention, giving off high pitched squeaks. He felt through their connection that it wanted to explore, and also him to go with it. It had finished exploring the large room, and was now waiting by the door. _How did it know that was a door?_ He wondered, then accredited it to the link the two shared. He opened the door and allowed the dragon to explore where it pleased, he just followed it and kept an eye on it, not wanting to let it get up to any mischief.

As they walked down the passage, John noticed that there were also any doors, probably heading to more rooms, in here, but they were more spaced out, allowing for each room to be bigger, along with a higher ceiling and the doors themselves being bigger.

Eventually, they emerged into the open, looking around the 'streets', if you could call them that, to John, it seemed that all the blue dragons in the crowds stood out a bit more than the rest. He was also surprised to find that the sun was still high in the sky. He smiled and carried on following the little dragon closely, keeping an eye on it. He also noticed other Riders, upon noticing him and the small dragon, gave a smile and a congratulatory nod. Thus they, John and Dragon, continued walking through the city.


	8. Chapter 8

**Double lives – the multiverses collide**

Chapter 8

**A/N:** Please review! I want to know what you think and I want to improve my writing style and quality. Enjoy!

* * *

Eragon sighed, sitting in the midst of the collection Eldunarí, he looked at the many different gem-like objects. The dead dragons' consciousness each lives in its own facetted, opaque gem. The colour of each gem was that of the scales of the dragon when it had been alive. He had read most of the books in the city's libraries already in the past years. None that he knew of none that had any information on what John had described, so he had headed straight here.

The massive room, larger than most caverns, of Eldunarí was still through the rock of Kuthian, since it was a perfect location for the Eldunarí, the lava running below giving over enough light for the multi-coloured gems to get enough energy to survive. Eragon had changed the method of entry from saying ones' true names to a long complicated password that, as with the hatchery, that only he and the council knew. All of the riders that were members for more than three years knew of the Eldunarí below, but none caused any trouble.

Besides, the Eldunarí were strong enough to defend themselves. With their combined mental might, they had been able to change happenings in Alagäesia, and that was before the fall of Galbatorix when Eragon had been but a teenager. Now, with their slightly greater numbers , they were strong enough to possibly reach even contact the island that the New Order's first home had been on, if there was anyone there, having increased a couple times when there had been riders who tried to take after Galbatorix or otherwise be power hungry, greedy or just plain rebellious. The Eldunarí of the dragons who had fought against Eragon and the order, if they had been disgorged, were destroyed, unfortunately, but it was necessary to ensure future generations' safety.

"Have none of you ever heard of this happening? Not even something similar?" Eragon asked, worried.

_Asking us again will not change our answer. Even our oldest know nothing of such a thing _replied an annoyed Umaroth, the dragon, or what was left of him, of the lead rider of the Old Oder, Vrael, before Galbatorix, _we advise that you train John and his dragon, keep an eye on them, but do not let them know they are being watched. Maybe the newly hatched dragon would also be able to explain to us more about John's world, since it is going to be brought up in this world, learning of the other from John, so it would be best at explaining. But that is the future, now you must proceed with caution, there is some strange magic causing this. We doubt John had any direct part in the cause of this, but still keep an eye on him._

Eragon nodded and then headed out of the underground room, walking alongside Saphira in the tunnel heading back to the surface, deep in thought. Once they were above the surface and had closed the entrance to the Vault of Souls, Eragon located John with his mind, then headed to where he was. From the brief contact he had had with John, he noticed John's amazement and happiness for the newly hatched dragon, and also that John seemed worried his mind was going to float away from his body. Eragon remembered that he had felt similarly when Saphira had first hatched. _Don't scare him to death this time._ Eragon said in jest to Saphira.

_I'll scare you to death, little one_ said Saphira, issuing a playful warning growl.

Eragon feigned mock horror, putting his hand in front of his mouth, _but that would be horrid! Who has ever heard of someone's own dragon killing them?_

_You'll be the first,_ Saphira exhaled a puff of smoke onto him.

_Come now, Saphira, don't set a bad example for the little ones_. Eragon caught sight of John, his dragon busy exploring a flower bed, and walked up to him. "Hello John," he said.

"Hello, Eragon," John said, then after a pause, "this is so cool. It's so cute!" He picked up the baby dragon, it squeaking in protest, until it saw Saphira right in front of it, upon which it streatched out its head and neck towards her.

_Never call a dragon cute_ said Saphira to John.

"Sorry." John put the baby dragon down. The little blue reptile ran up to Saphira, running around her legs, and then it found her tail. After much effort on its part, and Saphira keeping very still, it managed to climb on top of her tail, then headed up along it till it got to Saphira's head, where it lay down and watched everyone below, feeling big and powerful, after 'conquering' Saphira.

Eragon laughed at Saphira, who was going to great efforts to keep her head still enough that the hatchling didn't fall off. After watching the little dragon, Eragon said "when it comes down, we should check its gender, then you and it can decide its name. Saphira and I-"

_Or we can do it now_ interrupted Saphira impatiently. Through John's link to the baby dragon, John sensed unintelligible, to him, communication between the two blue dragons through his link to the little one. _It is a girl_ she announced, _I have also told her of the all names I knew for baby girl dragons, and she decided she liked Ashikia, a nice name, _Saphiranoticed John's wondering how they could communicate even though the dragon, Ashikia, was so small. _Newly hatched dragons are capable of basic communication, due to the time they spend in their egg, but it is only understandable to other dragons. You will have to teach her English._

"Oh…" said John. That might have been a tough task, if they did not have their minds connected. He would just try to remember that each time he thought about or said something, he would think about the meaning and use of the word/object and the dragon should, over time learn from him. Though, on the topic of minds, "how come I can now sense other peoples' minds? I can sense your twos' minds, and the other people nearby, but not as well as the littl- I mean Ashikia's mind. And how do I stop my mind from floating away from my body?"

Eragon chuckled then said "don't worry, you won't lose your mind. It is called telepathy. It comes with being a dragon rider, along with magic and being unable to die from age. You will be able to sense and interact with the minds of people around you. As you grow more skilled at it, you will be able to reach further as well. Magic and telepathy come hand-in-hand, you can't have magic without telepathy, though there are a few people, referred to as mind breakers, who have just telepathy. People can also block you from their mind, but depending on their and your skill, you may still be able to gain access. Try reach your mind towards mine."

John nodded then reached his mind towards the location of Eragon. He was happy when he found his mind was still connected to his body. After a little while of slowly and cautiously extending his mind towards Eragon, he encountered something. It was another consciousness, but it was as solid as a rock and he could not tell anything from it, besides that it was where Eragon's head was. "See, I have my mind shielded," said Eragon, then the barrier fell away and John felt a vast mind before him, from just the surface, John could 'see' that decades of knowledge and experience filled it. It also felt slightly strange, inhuman, with mystical melodies playing in its sky-blue landscape. He pulled back almost completely, not wanting to drown in the ocean that was mind.

Eragon smiled at John's expression. He had kept most of his mind sealed off from John, as there were many secrets that he knew that were not to be shared. But even with most of his mind cordoned off, John still had found it overwhelming. _Cool, huh? See how each person's mind is different?_ He thought, bringing John out of his reverie.

John withdrew his mind from Eragon's, then said "Yes…though…I would rather practise on smaller, easier things than you."

"Don't worry, you will. Speaking of practise, it is time for you to get some training." Eragon gestured for John to follow him. Usually Riders-in-training got a mentor who was an elder Rider, and Eragon didn't often take trainees, but helped anywhere extra help was needed. He only personally mentored Riders in special cases, whether it was because they had discovered the use of magic on their own, new Riders weren't told how to use magic until they were deemed ready, them needing supervision, coming from other worlds or anything else important enough. John just happened to fall under a couple of those categories.

When they arrived at the training field, which was not the only training ground on the island, it was just the only levelled and cleared one, the rest were on natural terrain, as battlefields wouldn't always be flat. Though, for what Eragon was going to teach John now, it didn't matter if he was on a flat field. They, the two dragons and two riders, headed to a more quiet corner of the field where Eragon took two sticks resembling swords from a pile of them. He took one, leaving his sword sheathed, and passed the other to John.

And so they trained for a few hours, John fumbling around with the stick at first, but steadily getting better, Eragon instruction him the whole way, correcting his style, form and stance, watching John's progress. Eragon was glad that he did not have to work too hard on John's fitness, due to that thing called hockey, where he did a lot of fitness, usually for the first half of his practice. Also, John was accustomed to holding a long stick (though his hockey sticks were a _bit _more advanced), but that proved both annoying and helpful because, though he could manoeuvre the stick easily, he kept on standing in a 'hockey' stance, holding the stick low. But he improved over time.

* * *

When the sky began to turn orange, from the setting sun, the panting John lay down on the grass in relief. Ashikia came and lay down next to him, though her practice with Saphira hadn't been very tiring. Saphira didn't want to push her too hard, since she was *technically* only half a day old (who knows exactly how long she spent in the egg, besides Eragon and Saphira, that is). "Come on, get up. You should sleep in your bed, not on the grass," said Eragon. John groaned, then got up and said goodbye to Eragon, and then headed to the dormitory. He had found out that riders got a home when they were strong enough to build, or mostly build, their own. Magic would be allowed in the building process, though.

He climbed into bed, Ashikia settling onto his chest once again, and he fell asleep, the day's events playing over in his mind.

* * *

John woke up and was surprised when he found that Ashikia was still on his chest. _What the!_ He thought, surprised. He was glad, though, because he wouldn't only see Ashikia every 'second' day. Now they could be partners in both worlds. Though, he had some explaining to do to his parents… Speaking of parents, here came his mom now to say good morning…

* * *

**A/N:** Eragon trivia (I just noticed this mistake Christopher Poalini made in Eragon yesterday): Galbatorix lost his dragon, it was killed by Urgals. He went mad. Then after a while he appealed to the Rider council to allow him to get another dragon. How on Alagäsia did he even get there? He had no dragon to fly there. It was also mentioned in the books that ships struggled to reach the island. I doubt anyone would take a madman on such a dangerous journey. Unless the entire crew were madmen.


	9. Chapter 9

**Double Lives - the multiverses collide**

Chapter 9

**A/N:** Thank you guys for all the reviews, follows and favourites. glaedr-is-awesome has asked me to make my chapters longer. I have done that for this chapter, but I would like to know if you guys want shorter chapters, but more frequent updates, or longer chapters, but then it will take longer between each chapter being uploaded? This chapter excluded, all my previous chapters averaged at 1686.6 words per chapter.

* * *

John pulled Ashikia towards him as his mom entered the room, but it was pointless. She saw Ashikia and froze. "Mom, I can explain," said John, to no avail.

His mom stepped backwards, out the door, shouting "Charles! Come here quick!" This drew Ashikia's attention, and she looked at John's mom.

"Coming, Helena! What is it?" John heard his dad's heavy footsteps coming down the passage, then he saw his dad come into the room, next to his mom. Charles froze, just like his mom had, then said slowly, nervous under the gaze of the cat-sized blue winged lizard, "John…move slowly away fr-"

"Dad, mom, it is ok," John interrupted, "she is a friend." John stroked Ashikia to make a point that he was not getting hurt. He sensed Ashikia enjoyed being stroked, but she was very nervous under such intense attention. Ashikia lost her nerve and ran to the safest place in the room, behind John.

"John…what _is_ _it_?" his mom asked, clearly puzzled. In all her years as a vet, she has never seen any creature like it.

"She- is a dragon. Her name is Ashikia." John glanced behind himself to the blue dragon sitting behind him, trying to make itself small. John looked back at his parents, noticing they were both still tense and standing dead still. "It is ok, you can move. She won't attack. She and I are partners. I will tell you more once you have calmed down," he added.

John's parents breathed again, then moved a few steps closer to his bed, though they kept quiet, so he decided to explain. "It started on Wednesday night. Remember on Thursday I asked you whether some dreams don't fade? Well, on Wednesday night I woke up in a forest, and soon found out I was in a world that seemed to come out of a fairy tale: A fantasy world where Dwarves, Elves, Dragons, Urgals, telepathy and even magic exist. But I didn't believe it was real at first. I went to sleep there and woke up here again. Then on Thursday night, it happened again. Then I started to wonder if it might be real. And it happened again Friday night, last night.

"In that fantasy-like world, I ended up on an island that was home to the Order of the Dragon Riders. Their leader is a half-elf named Eragon, and his blue dragon, Saphira. Yesterday…err…last night… they took me to the hatchery to see whether a dragon would hatch for me. One did. Mom and Dad, meet Ashikia," he turned around, picking up Ashikia from her hiding place and holding her where his parents could see. She squeaked a couple times at them, and then wriggled out of John's grasp, curling up against him, this time in the front, watching them.

"Uh…hello Ashikia…?" said Helena. Ashikia squeaked again, which caused John's mom to laugh briefly. She walked forward, reaching out her hand to the little dragon. Ashikia got up and walked forward, sniffing John's mom's hand and then arching her back as she got a back-rub. Charles walked a bit closer, watching his wife and the winged reptile.

"Cute little pet you have here, John," John's mom said.

"She isn't my pet, she is my partner," John corrected.

"Sorry. What do you mean by that?"

"When a dragon hatches for you, the first time you touch it is incredibly painful, but your mind and the dragon's get bonded together. The dragon naturally had telepathy and every now and then can briefly use magic. The person who bonds with the dragon, gains the abilities of telepathy and magic. Eragon is training me in sword-fighting and telepathy. Eventually he will also train me in magic. I am not sure why he has not started yet."

John's dad shook his head then said "Wait, besides Ashikia here, how is there proof that any of this exists? And who is this Eragon fellow? How can you trust him? He is teaching children sword fighting and these other things…"

"Relax, dad, he is the leader of the New Order of the Dragon Riders. And we are training with sticks. And if you want proof, I can show you…"

"Why is it the _New _Order?"

"A Dragon Rider turned against the Old Order and essentially destroyed it. Eragon defeated him, ending centuries of the dictator's tyranny. The man was called Galbatorix."

"Oh…now for that proof you offered…"

"Sure," said John. He closed his eyes and concentrated on extending his mind towards his dad and mom. His tendril of thought reached their minds soon, and he opened his eyes. Their minds felt familiar, yet different to him. Since he was their child, his mind was a mix of each one. _Hello_,_ mom and dad,_ he projected his thought to them and watched their surprised expressions as they realised that was him. "Cool, huh?"

"…uh…yeah…" said a distant-looking Helena. Without touching her mind, John could tell that she was deep in thought, then her eyes refocused on him and she said "Well, that is pretty…cool… now, let us have breakfast. The bacon and eggs are probably cold by now. And I need to wake up George. He is so lazy on weekends…" She walked out the room.

"I presume Ashikia eats meat?" asked John's dad.

"Yes, I think we are going to have to buy a lot more soon, after seeing how much she eats…"

"Ok…for now there is some frozen meat. I shall defrost it quickly." Charles walked out of the room, heading to the kitchen.

John sighed then got up and closed the door to his bedroom, so he could get changed in private. Well, not actually in private, Ashikia was in the room as well, but she didn't count since their minds were literally bonded and it wouldn't make a difference if she was in another room. Anyway, she was not interested.

Once John had finished getting dressed, he headed out his room, Ashikia following him. Then he remembered that Saphira had said he would need to teach Ashikia English, so he made sure she was paying attention with a mental prod. He then thought of the name and purpose of each item he saw on the way to and in the kitchen.

Helena soon arrived at the kitchen as well, soon followed by George, who, upon seeing Ashikia, had a similar reaction as his parents, freezing at the sight of Ashikia. "George, relax," said John.

"But-but-but, that can't be real. Dragons don't exist. John is this some kind of prank?"

"No it is not." John, not wanting to explain it all over again reached out mentally to George and showed his memory of his and their parents' conversation about Ashikia. George at first reacted with disbelief. John noticed that so far, Georges mind was the most similar to his that he had yet encountered. It made sense, since they were brothers. Their minds, however, were not a match for each other, like his and Ashikia's, which fitted together perfectly."

Charles arrived back from re-heating the bacon and eggs and defrosting a hunk of meat. "Breakfast is served," he said.

"Oh, John, remember you invited your friends for a visit. They will be coming over at about 12 o' clock."

"Oh…" said John, hoping that he would not have to explain Ashikia to anyone else for a little while.

They ate breakfast, and afterwards they did many different things, All involved Ashikia. Most of the time he was letting her explore the house, explaining mentally each object she showed interest in. Thus, they passed the time until Charles left to fetch their guests.

* * *

John heard the car pulling in at the driveway, then told Ashikia to go to and wait in his room upstairs. He ran to, and out, the front door. He went to the car and greeted his friends as they got out. "Hi Guys! How's it going?" he asked to Cornelius, Emily and Frank.

"We're good!" came the chorus of replies form his friends.

"Come in!" said John smiling. He gestured to the door and stood aside, allowing them and his dad to go in. Once they were in, he followed them inside. They headed to the lounge where they chatted idly about different topics. Once John felt they had settled in, he waited for the current topic in the discussion to end, before he said "Guys, there is something I need to tell you."

"Yes?" asked Emily, curious.

"Well, it started on Wednesday night…" started John. This time, he found it easier to explain, probably because he was giving the explanation before showing them Ashikia. There were general gasps from the three when he mentally called Ashikia downstairs to the lounge. They were also quite amazed at the telepathy and the idea of the magic, even though John was not able to show them any.

"I really wish you guys could come with me, so I can show you the awesome place," said John.

"Yeah…sounds awesome!" said Frank.

They continued talking for some time, then started playing together, each getting one of the three computers in the house. Frank had brought his own laptop. They played multiplayer games together for some time, but after a while, they stopped and went and played some stuff outside, like soccer in the garden, swimming, board games and lunch on the deck table.

The time flew, and before they knew it, it was time for them to go home. Their parents came to fetch them in the late afternoon.

After supper, John went to sleep with Ashikia on his bed. He also thought about the day's event. It felt like a weight had been taken off his chest after telling his parents and friends. He had asked them not to tell other people, but to keep it a secret between them.

* * *

John woke up back in his room in Alagäesia. Yesterday Eragon had said that he would be showing John around the island. His breakfast somehow made its way to his table every morning without his noticing anyone coming in. After eating it, John headed straight to the training field where Eragon had asked him to meet. As he walked past other riders in the streets, he got some odd looks. John's best guess was that the news had spread that he was from another world.

When he arrived at the field, he saw Eragon was already there, looking awake and ready as ever. John ran to him excitedly when he caught sight of Eragon. "Eragon!" he said.

"Hello John. What is it? You seem quite excited…" Eragon said, looking at John wondering what was causing the excitement.

"Ashikia came with me to my world!"

"That makes sense…since you two are bonded," he said. Yesterday, they had not been sure whether John and Ashikia's bond would enable Ashikia to travel between worlds. Now he saw that she did indeed. "I'm happy for you two. Though, let us not tarry. There is much to show you on the island and I do not wish to spend all day on it," said Eragon, climbing onto Saphira. He had already put an extra-large saddle on. Those saddles were usually used when taking new riders from the main continent across the ocean to the island, Vroengard. There were straps on it for two Riders and a baby dragon.

Once Eragon, Ashikia and John were strapped in, Saphira took off. She flew around the island and Eragon talked to them mentally, to avoid shouting over the _thuds_ of Saphira's wings. He told them about each place they saw.

_And there is the spot in the forest you first arrived in,_ Eragon said, mentally indicating a patch of forest below them. They flew for some time when Eragon stopped in mid-sentence and said _There are three people below us. From what I can tell, they are from your world. Their names are Cornelius, Frank and Emily._ Saphira dived down, landing in front of them with a heavy thud.

They screamed and started to run, only to be stopped in mid-step by one of Eragon's spells. Apparently they could still talk, since they were screaming and Frank was shouting "Please don't eat me!"

John sighed deeply then unstrapped himself and Ashikia while Eragon did the same. He slid off the side of Saphira, bending his legs to absorb the impact from the ground a few meters below. He waited for Eragon to come down, much more gracefully, holding Ashikia. Eragon put Ashikia down and watched John as he walked from behind Saphira towards the three who were stuck in thin air.

"Guys, relax. It's me," said John loudly and he patiently waited for them to calm down.

After a while, Cornelius said "John, is that Ashikia? And how did she just get supersized?!"

"That is not Ashikia, she is Saphira. She is Eragon's dragon." John gestured to Eragon who came around from behind Saphira. Ashikia followed Eragon and, upon seeing her, ran to Emily who had been stroking her a lot the day before.

"I take it you know them?" said Eragon.

"Yes, they are my friends. They came to visit my house yesterday. My parents, my brother and these three are the only people I trust enough to tell about Ashikia."

"Ok." Eragon released the magic holding the three still. Cornelius fell over, and Frank and Emily stumbled. "Well, come. We should head back now. We'll walk, since Saphira can't carry all of you."

John talked with his friends as they headed back home, walking behind Eragon and Saphira. Ashikia was running around them, being her energetic little self. After walking for a while, they arrived back at the Riders' city. Eragon took John's friends to one of the more comfortable guest rooms and asked them to stay there while he talked to John.

John and Eragon went and talked a bit further down the passage where they wouldn't be overheard. "John are you sure you can trust them?"

"Yes, I am completely sure. Apart from my close family, they are the people I trust most in the modern world."

"Ok. I still need to ask you a bit about them. I also need to know how much they know." Eragon asked John about his friends then they went back to them and Eragon asked "How would you three like to see if you can become dragon riders?"

* * *

About an hour later, the four modern Dragon Riders were busy practising stick sword-fighting against each other on the training field. Their Blue, Red, Orange and White dragons and their two instructors, one half-elf and one dragon, watched them and gave them advice.

A little later, the four trained their telepathy against Eragon. All four of them against Eragon hardly dented his mental defenses when he was only half trying. Anyway, that was not the point of it, as the whole time Eragon was instructing them in different methods and techniques.

After their training had finished, the four went to the dormitory. They all ate in John's room, where they talked excitedly about the day's events. Just before they headed to bed, they agreed that they would all come to John's house the next day again, at 2 o' clock. They would all talk to their parents to get permission, of course.

* * *

"But they visited just yesterday…" his dad said.

"Yes, I know, but last night… they were there…" said John

"Where?"

"In Alagäsia! They were there! Dragons hatched for them too!"

"So your friends also ended up in this Alagäesia place and dragons hatched for them too?" asked his mom.

"Yes. Yesterday, or last night, we agreed to meet again today."

"Ok…I guess that is fine…" said John's dad. John briefly touched his dads mind, wondering what was bothering him and found that his dad just had no clue how to deal with the situation, so he did what seemed best.

* * *

Later, John's friends arrived in his dad's car, having carried the dragons on their laps on the way there. Cornelius had an orange one, Frank a red and Emily the white one. Of course, his friends had to explain about the dragons to their families as well. They played with the dragons inside, to avoid being spotted. After a while, they got tired and sat down on the couches and talked while the four dragons played, mainly wrestling with each other for fun.

Then a troubling thought occurred to John, and he said "we won't be able to keep them hidden for long. Eragon said Dragons grow fast, especially when they are young. I think that, sooner than later, we will have to make ourselves publicly known, so the Government can't just make us disappear. If the public knows about us, then if the government makes one of us 'disappear' for tests and experiments, the others will be able to help. The government won't be able to do it as easily."

After much discussion and brainstorming, John and Frank began work on the website and video they would use to publicise themselves, Emily helped refine the style and the grammar.

After a few hours of work, they finally managed to get it done and published the site and video, putting the video on the site and YouTube. With that, they got dropped off at their homes again, and went to sleep, eagerly awaiting training the next day, despite it being tiring.

* * *

**A/N:** So, do you want long less frequent chapters, or shorter more frequents chapters? PM/review to vote. I know some of you might think that publicizing might not be the best idea. But it keeps the story interesting, and considering what I have planned for tomorrow, it seems to be the best plan. I also thank shizzz for some ideas for the plot. Hope you enjoyed!


	10. Chapter 10

**Double Lives – the multiverses collide**

Chapter 10

**A/N:** Yay, Chapter 10! Double digits! This chapter is going to be fun.

* * *

Eragon woke up early as usual. He always liked getting up early, as it gave him time to relax and do what he wanted for a little while before the day's responsibilities and tasks took the rest of his time. He was currently in his room next to Saphira going through the highest stage of Rimgar. The Elven "dance of the snake and crane" was quite a tough physical exercise, the highest stage being so tough that only very fit elves could complete it successfully. No human had ever done it before. Eragon was only half human, and the leader of the Riders.

Once he was finished, he went to his washing room since he was covered in sweat. There he filled a tub with water and used magic to quickly heat it before jumping in.

When he finished bathing, he headed to the training field with Saphira to wait for the four new Riders to arrive. He thought of them and their dragons: John and his blue dragon, the female Ashikia; Cornelius and the orange male Kyloth; Frank and male Camroth , the red and female Kayelinth the white with Emily.

* * *

Eragon shook his head and said "I don't think that was very good idea…"

"We talked about it extensively. We wouldn't be able to keep the dragons hidden for ever. And, who knows what the government would try to do if they found out and they managedto take one of us," said John.

"But who says making this public will help? That will just alert them sooner"

"We are not sure, but that seemed like the best option," objected Emily.

"Very well… in this world, I would think it not better to let everyone know, but your world _is_ different. I still don't think your world is prepared" Eragon massaged his temples then continued, "We will need to preparet in case something bad happens. I was not planning on teachingthe four of you magic until I see I will have to make a start today."

Normally, the four teenagers would have been jumping with excitement but not under these circumstances. After a couple minutes' silence, John said "It would be nice if you could see the modern world first hand, and you could help as well. Some people already know about the dragonsand don't think it is a hoax, so Saphira coming too wouldn't make much of a difference." John wanted the two to come to the modern world, and show them around. Eragon would surely have some invisibility spell for Saphira. They would also be able to help in the case of something going wrong.

"Mmm-hmm…" said Eragon, still thinking. "Come, we should start our training. Magic is controlled by the Ancient Language. You can also cast spells without the language to form them, but that is to be avoided at all costs, since if your concentration wavers while you are casting a spell, it could have dire consequences. For example, if you wanted to set a door on fire, but while you were about to cast the spell, you briefly thought about the person next to you,you would most likely end up setting the person on fire. That's why we have the Ancient Language to make sure that magic does exactly what you tell it to. Let us start with making stones float.

"Take a stone in the hand with the mark from touching your dragon. Now, if you search your mind, you will find a small part that you have never used before. It will get easier with practice, but for now it will be quite tough to breach the barrier. Again, with practise, you will also be able to keep the magic for longer. Once you have breached it, you will feel the flow of magic around you. When you are ready, concentrate on the stone in front of you and say 'Stenr rïsa', which means 'Stone, rise'."

Cornelius gasped then said, "In the modern world, studies have shown that humans only use 20% of their brains…maybe it has something to do with this?"

"Maybe, but for now the four of you need to practise."

Eragon watched as for a little while. Nothing happened. Then Cornelius repeated the words and his stone floated upwards, wobbling for a few seconds, and fell down again. Eragon remembered when Brom had first trained him,.He also had trouble staying in the flow of magic for long. Then Frank said "Stenr rïsa" rather forcefully and his pebble shot off a few meters up then hit the ground in front of him. Eragon chuckled. When he had tried to see if Roran could do magic, Roran had said the words with such force, Eragon had expected it to also go flying. _Roran…_ thought Eragon. Roran was very old, for a normal human, now but was still in good health, for his age. Then John and Emily both succeeded in raising their pebbles at the same time, but after a few seconds of wobbling in the air, Emily's fell to her palm again.

He looked at John and was met with a surprising sight. The stone was hovering in front of his face, perfectly stable. John looked very surprised as well. After seeing the others' stones fall so fast, he was almost scared of what his one was doing. "Eragon?! How do I make it stop?!" He asked.

"Leave the flow of magic… move away from that part of your mind," said Eragon, rushing to John. Then the pebble dropped. Eragon stopped, coming to a standstill just in front of John. After a pause, he said, "John how did you do that?"

"I don't know…I did just what you told us to…"

"But how? No-one has ever managed to do it so well on their first attempt. Not even me. Are you sure this is the first time you have done magic?"

"I've never done my magic in my life before… if I have, I certainly don't know about it. But what you said about it being hard to get into the flow of magic…it felt almost too easy…"

"Ok." Said Eragon, then he silently conversed with Saphira alone. _It doesn't make sense…he became a rider just four days ago, in his time, how could it be possible…?_

_I do not know, little one, but he isn't lying. I asked Ashikia. He certainly has no memory of using magic, aside from telepathy the last few days._

_This is strange. Maybe it has something to do with him changing worlds?_

_Maybe… but for now we should continue training, John included, but I think maybe let the others continue practising with the pebbles. You should give him slightly more challenging tasks. Oh, and you forgot to mention at the start about how much energy magic uses._

_I shall. Thanks, _thought Eragon, then he said, "Ok, John I want to get you working on something harder. You other three, for now continue trying to keep the stones floating. Try to focus on keeping them still and also floating for long. And Frank, keep it more under control. You need to keep it floating in front of you. Also, before you try anything silly, let me tell you something important about magic: It takes as much energy to use the magic as it would have to have actually done it physically. If you want to throw a boulder, it will take the same amount of energy as if you had done it yourself.

"The amount of energy also increases over distance the object is away from you. If you use too much energy, then you will first pass out, and then possibly die. Rather don't do something iIf you are unsure.I Remember that if you set a definite condition for magic to do something, like raise the boulder five feet in the air, it won't stop until it has done that. If you don't have enough strength and energy to reach five feet, you will die. If the commands are vague, like 'stone rise', then you can stop the magic when you choose."

The Riders-in-training nodded, then Eragon walked away with John and said, "Ok, John, for whatever reason, you can use magic easily, so now I am going to teach you more words in the Ancient Language, and also see how much you can do."

First, Eragon had John do a series of physical tests to determine his strength and stamina. It turned out that John had the strength of an ordinary human. Nothing was surprising there.

Then he taught John words and sentences in the Ancient Language, and got him to cast different spells to see how John fared. To both their great surprise, magic came very easily to John. John was too inexperienced at magic to gauge his energy loses, but Eragon thought that he seemed to be tiring slower than he should be. It was as if his magic was more efficient than it should be, not a one toone ratio. This confused and surprised both of them greatly. However as John had not had decades getting fitter and training, nor was he part-elf, his magic was hardly comparable to Eragon's.

Eragon also briefly tested the other's magic 'efficiency' on a large stone, not quite a boulder, but they tired as quickly as expected.

A little later, at the end of the day, the group headed to their respective rooms. John was tired and confused, and Eragon only the latter. He decided he would have a talk with the Eldunarí tomorrow, as it was quite late at the time they had finished.

* * *

"_John…John! Wake up!_" came the voice inside and outside his head. John opened his eyes sleepily and was met with the sight of Eragon's face in front of him.

"Wha-what you doing here?" he asked weakly and sleepily. Was he still in Alagäesia? He sat up. No, he was in his own room.

"I don't know. I was hoping you could tell me," said Eragon.

"I don't know either… how did you even get in my house? How did you find it?"

"Saphira and I woke up in the garden. I sensed you inside. I fixed the door."

"You broke down the door!"

"Normally I would have used magic to unlock it, but I didn't want to waste it afterwards was much quicker, since I went neatly for the hinges."

"Arrgh… next time, wake me up first then I can use the key to unlock it… did you wake anyone else up?"

"No. I don't think so" said Eragon. There was a few minutes' silence then Eragon asked "John, I remember you saying that you wanted me and Saphira to come here…"

"Yeah…So…? I didn't do it…I think…"

"Did you also want Ashikia to come as well, and your friends to Alagäesia?"

"Are you saying I caused this?"

"I am saying it seems the most likely explanation. I have checked your mind before, and you are not doing it deliberately, that's for sure."

"It would explain why I can access magic so easily, but how?"

Eragon remained silent, obviously at a loss for answers. John checked the time on his phone that was next to his bed.

"Why do you wake up so early? It is almost 5 o' clock…"

"I normally do. I take the time to exercise and relax before the day's duties get to me. It has been pretty tough getting my days free to train the four of you. Luckily I have twelve council members to help me, though they also have their fair share of responsibilities."

"Ok, thanks…I guess… I'm going to go and wake my parents."

"Ok. I'll come with you."

"Ok, just wait outside their room's door until I call you."

"Sure…"

They headed out of John's room towards his parent's room. Eragon looked at all the weird things in the house, wandering what they did, but not wanting to fiddle, lest he damage something. John pressed some sort of mini circular lever that made circular patches on the ceiling glow with a bright light. Eragon waited in the passage, looking at the strange light sources.

John quietly opened the door to his parent's room and walked to his dad, who slept on the bed's side nearest the door, and shook him gently. "Dad, wake up." He said quietly. After some shaking his dad, Charles gave off a brief snort and sat up quickly. This gave John a big fright. In doing this, he also woke up Helena, who was a rather light sleeper.

"John, what are you doing up so early?" asked his dad.

"Uhm, well…dad, remember I told you about Eragon and Saphira?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, they are here…"

"What!"

"They are here. Eragon is at the door."

"Ok, John… switch on the lights, then we will call you two in soon."

John nodded and then switched on the lights and then headed out, closing the door behind him. A little later, his parents called to them, "You can come in." John went in ahead of Eragon, his parents now in their clothes sitting on top of the bed.

"Hello, Eragon," said John's dad nervously.

"Hello…uh?" Eragon's sentence faded, since he didn't know their names and didn't want to be impolite and read their minds to find out.

"Charles, and this is my wife Helena."

"Hello Charles and Helena, nice to meet you." Eragon held out his hand to them and they shook his.

"Uh…well, welcome to our home. Where is-" he was interrupted by the screeching of tires from below. John rushed to the window and saw Saphira on the road, a car driving away very fast. In Alagäesia, with all its supersized buildings, he had not really truly realized how big she was. If she stretched her neck only slightly, she would be able to put her head in the window. Actually, she would end up making the majority of the wall into a 'window' if she tried to stick her head in.

John turned away from the window and said "Oh great…someone spotted Saphira in the road." All four of them rushed downstairs and out the front door and to Saphira. John's parents lagged behind somewhat, scared of the gigantic dragon standing halfway in their driveway. "They are probably going to call the police," said John, "Eragon, can you hide Saphira?"

"Yes, I can make her invisible, but she seems to be right in the middle of those strange creatures' pathway. I could fly with her and make her invisible?"

"Yes, do that. Now where is Ashkia?" John searched for her telepathically and found her busy trying to raid the freezer which had a lot of meat in it. She didn't seem as if she was going to succeed any time soon, and he had other things to worry about.

Eragon hopped onto Saphira and said a few words of the Ancient Language. John gasped as they phased out of sight. Then John felt Eragon's presence in his mind and heard Eragon say _Let's keep in contact like this._

_Ok,_ responded John. "Cover your ears," John warned his parents and did likewise. The air pressure spiked massively as the invisible dragon took off. Once the pressure spikes had gone, John took his hands away from his ears and then looked around. Glass windows, car windscreens and sliding doors had cracked in most of the nearby houses and cars. Lights were switching on in various houses along the street. John's parents were standing with gaping mouths.

"Don't worry, he can fix it with magic later, our main worry is the police. Let's get inside," John said. His parents still looked worried, but they went in after him.

* * *

Soon, there were cars with flashing red and blue lights on top were in the neighbourhood, asking every household questions about a report of a massive reptile. They investigated why many of the glass windows were broken. They focused mainly on the three houses on either side of the road around what seemed to be the centre point of the blast radius, having the cracked windows.

There was a knock on the front door. John stayed in his room and the now-awake George stayed in his. John had Ashikia in his room and told her to stay quiet. She was starting to understand some English. Helena and Charles, who had changed back into their pyjamas and put their nightgowns on, walked to the front door and opened it.

"Hello, officer, what is with all the commotion? Half the windows in the house are cracked… a couple have even broken…" said Charles.

"We are not too sure what is happening, but there was a report of a giant winged reptile and lots of the glass in your house. The closest five houses also seem to have damages. We are need you to answer a few questions and inspect your house. Don't stress, we are searching every house. We are trying to find the source of the incident," said the police officer.

"What would you like to know?"

"Did you see or hear anything?"

"Well, there were a number of pressure spikes just after we heard tires screeching. Could someone have set off some kind of bomb?"

"No, as far as we can tell, the screeching tyres were our informant driving away after seeing the giant reptile. Is there anyone else in the house?"

"Yes, our two sons."

"Ok, stay here, we may need to ask more questions, but for now, ,may we search the house?"

* * *

John had told Ashikia to hide in the cupboard and was lying on his bed, pretending to be busy on his was very nervous, he didn't know what to do on it. Then there was a knock on the door and a police officer walked in. "Hello, I take it you are John?" the officer asked.

"Yes," replied John watching as another two officers walked in.

"We would liketo search your room. Just stay calm."

John nodded, and then noticed one of the officers staring at him. "Do I know you?" the officer asked, "Yes…you're the one from that website claiming dragons are real…"

_Oh great…_ thought John. He contacted Eragon and said _Eragon, be ready to cast spells through me as I need them. It will be quicker that way. _ John looked at the officer and said "Well, do you believe it?"

"No," chuckled the officer, "graphic designing these days is getting so good…" John chuckled with him then watched as the three policemen searched his room. They started to openhis cupboards…

* * *

**A/N:** I apologise if the suspense is killing you, but there will be no chapter tomorrow. I am going on a hike for most of the day.


	11. Chapter 11

**Double Lives – the multiverses collide**

Chapter 11

**A/N: **Hello again. Did you miss me? My knees hate me now… 6 hour hike…

I'm going to try write a bit more dynamically now, giving the point of views of more characters that will be important now or later. Tell me if you would prefer me to follow just one character as before. Oh, and for those of you who don't know, in The Inheritance Cycle, dragons minds were clearly different to that of the two-legged races and thus my _different_ than usual point of view from them. Christopher did their POV similarly.

* * *

John was just about to ask Eragon how to make the doors to Ashikia's cupboard stay closed. But Eragon was reading his thoughts, literally, and quickly took control of John's mouth and had him cast a spell that would keep the doors closed. The cops stared at him. "What was that about?" the short one asked.

"Sorry, I was busy practising some Greek. We are learning some for fun in history." John lied, feeling bad about lying. He didn't even do history…

"Odd time to be practising, but ok…" The police continued searching his cupboards, until they got to the one which Ashikia was hiding in. When the door wouldn't open, they tugged a few times on it. They were not stupid, and they could see that the door was not locked or stuck closed. They were suspicious, and the tallest one who was clearly the leader asked John, "Hey, kid, what is in here?"

"Nothing much," said John. _Stay very still_ thought John to Ashikia, then he said "Just clothes and a few toys and other assorted items." He released the magic keeping the door closed, got up and opened it with ease. Surprise evident on the officers' faces, they looked in.

"Nice toy, kid," said an officer, looking at the very life-like curled up dragon toy. The police ignored the toy on the bottom shelf and the leader started briefly searching each shelf for a few seconds before moving to the next. When they got to the bottom one, the leader attempted to push the dragon 'toy' out of the way to look behind it. But when he pushed Ashikia against the side, he noticed that she was warm and felt very real. Too real. He picked up the 'toy' to look at it. Ashikia did not like being manhandled and gave an offended _squeak_ before wriggling out of the cop's hands and ran out of John's room, right into another cop on the stairs, who quickly apprehended her.

John got up and was about to chase after and save Ashikia, before one of the cops told him to sit down on his bed. The squeaks coming from downstairs greatly disturbed him. "Would you come with me, mister," said of the two police officers still in the room, "don't try resist, or we will have to handcuff you."

John nodded grimly and followed the cops out of the room. As he past his parents with their scared faces, the one police officer said "Don't worry, ma'am and sir, he has not committed any crime. We just need to ask about the reptile."

_John. I'm coming to help,_ said Eragon to John.

_No, don't. It will be the easiest for my family this way. We can't have the army coming to our neighbourhood. Also, they have weapons_, John sent Eragon a mental image of a gun, _that shoot pieces of metal at high speeds. I don't even know if your magic can stop them. Maybe you can deflect them, but I don't want to take chances._

_Ok…I'll keep in contact then._

_Try to avoid getting spotted._

_Ok._

John quickly touched his parents' minds and said _Don't worry, I will sort this out. Eragon is also going to follow us at a distance, ready to help if needed. Just don't do anything stupid, please. _He walked out into the driveway where he saw a panicked Ashikia trying to get out the back of a police car. He started to run to the car, but one of the officers caught his arm and directed him forcefully to another car. "Don't worry, we won't hurt it. We just want to look at it. You'll be helping the good of the country."

"Why am I not going to the same car?" asked John.

"You are coming to our headquarters for some questioning. It isn't." replied an emotionless cop.

"Don't hurt her." John got into the car and sat down. _Eragon, can you follow Ashikia and keep in contact with me?_

_Yes. I can contact someone on the other side of Alagäesia. Should I try rescue her? _The police car started driving away. So did Ashikia's.

_Please try, but also don't get noticed. Don't leave any trace of being there. Make it look like Ashikia just…vanished, or maybe like she still is there._

_Ok. I'll also keep my mind in contact with yours but a bit less than what it has been now. Just nudge me if you want my attention._

_Thanks._ John sighed then reached for Ashikia and said _Eragon and Saphira are going to follow and help you. Be careful._ The two's care for each other went both ways across their link before the cars got too far away for him to communicate with her. This was the first time since her hatching that she was too far away to communicate with her. He could still sense her, but just enough to know she was still ok. Eragon had explained that a dragon and Rider's bond was so strong that no matter if they were out of telepathic range, they could still sense if one another were ok. Also, any pain the one felt would be the other's. He was dreading what tests and pain they might put Ashikia through, and by extension himself, though indirectly. Soon they arrived at the police station.

* * *

Burkhart sighed, tiredly rubbing his eyes. He could not sleep. He got up and leaned against the purple dragon that had stayed up with his rider. They had been discussing many things to pass the time. There were many things to discuss, most of them being how to sort out this problem or organise that or give advice on something. Such was the life of a council member. Work, work and more work.

Having bored of such subjects, the blond-haired elf decided to change the topic. He was old, even by the measure of his race. Becoming a Rider had prolonged his life, but he had had use of magic long before. Burkhart was not often indecisive with matters and choices in general and once he had made a choice he stuck with it. He was also rarely wrong. Even more rarely did he disagree with Eragon. Now was one of those times.

_I still don't get why he trusted that John person so easily. This sort of incident needs to be studied, examined and its workings determined. Such a skill would be useful to us. We could bring order and peace to multiple worlds. That human clearly has control of his…gift…he even brought some friends along. Someone needs to sort this out before he becomes a threat._ The brown-eyed Rider thought.

_Calm down. I hate to see you in such a foul mood. You need sleep. You can figure out about John another time. I also sense there is more to him than meets the eye, but now you need sleep. Should I force you to cast a sleeping spell on yourself?_ The purple dragon snorted a cloud of smoke.

_You won't be able to breach my mental defences._

_Oh yes I would, even if you were not so tired._

_Sometimes you…_ the elf stopped, knowing his dragon was not making empty threats, despite being 368 years younger than him, Barioth still had quite enough attitude for both of them, _fine, I will walk around and try get some fresh air and then come back and then come back to sleep._

After his dragon had given him consent, Burkhart left his house and went for a midnight walk around the Riders' city. He greeted a couple sentries that he passed. He decided to walk in the forest. The trees always reminded him of his old home in an elven town not far from Ellesmere.

* * *

Ashikia wanted her partner-of-heart-and-mind. She tried to roar at the two-legs-nasty-to-her, but all that she managed to do was squeak, yet she kept trying.

"Quite, you," said one of the nasty-two-legs.

She squeaked more and ran around in the cage-chair-for-two-legs. She wanted to get out, but she couldn't. Then they arrived at a large white-rectangle-building with glass windows. A large-padded-two-legs opened the side of the cage and reached for her. She backed up into the corner, trying to get away. The two-legs managed to get her and seemed not to care about her sinking her teeth, with difficulty into his oddly-thick-arm.

She got carried down the very straight-big-passage and then found herself going past many very thick doors. At the end of the series of doors, she got put on a white-flat-surface and was strapped down. She was not in pain, but could not move much at all. She sensed all the two-legs in the room leave, but some remained at the door. She could sense from their minds that they were looking for any two-legs-not-allowed to come.

After some time of despair, she reached a peak in emotion. She couldn't explain how or why, but it was like a whole new world had opened to her. It felt quite like when her Rider used magic, but it was powerful. She suddenly had the power to change the world around her. She willed the straps around her to be off. The straps fell off her, severed in half, but something she had not intended happened as well. A small rectangle-box with a circle in the front sparked, letting off a tiny explosive pop. Then the power was gone, along with her sadness. She ignored the sparking box and jumped off the flat-white-surface onto the flat-white-floor.

She went to the door and reached her mind towards the two two-legs outside. She sent over the emotion of pity and curiousness to them, urging them to open the door and just take a peek. They seemed to ignore her for quite some time, until one finally turned around, the other didn't stop him.

It was going well, until they saw her waiting by the door. "What you doing there?!" said one surprised. They weren't curious enough to let her wander and one ran towards a red button on the wall. Then, all of a sudden, they both fell down and the door behind them opened very slightly. They didn't get up. Then Ashikia went through the disconcerting experience of her nose in front of her vanishing.

_Ashikia, it is Eragon. John asked me to rescue you,_ came a familiar thought-voice.

Ashikia sent the emotion of gratefulness to the leader-two-legs. She felt herself being picked up by invisible hands and kept quiet as they went through door by door. They passed many sparking boxes that were on the roof. Ashikia sent a questioning thought to Eragon and he responded with _I believe that was you, young one. You have been the youngest dragon to have their first burst of magic. You and John are strong in magic._

Eragon, still carrying Ashikia, walked right out the front of the building, past many two-legs with long-metal-pipes. They walked out into the empty fields surrounding the building. _I'm glad you are safe, daughter,_ came the caring-thoughts-of-mother.

How Eragon did it, Ashikia was not sure, but somehow he managed to find the invisible straps and strap both them in. Then Saphira-mother took off and they were soon flying far away from the nasty-two-legs.

* * *

Saphira loved the wind in her face, but the air here was odd. It smelt dirty, though only very faint. Eragon, the partner-of-her-heart-and-mind, asked her to fly to where two-legs-round-ears-bonded-to-daughter-John was being kept by more two-legs-round-ears.

As she flew, she thought of Ashikia, thinking of the little one's history. She and Fírnen had mated not long before Eragon and her had to leave Alagäesia. Not long after finding a new home for the Riders, she had laid one egg. For the many decades of the New Order of Riders' existence, she had been worried why her daughter had not yet hatched, but she knew that eventually she would find the perfect Rider.

After many decades, the Ashikia had hatched for the least likely person. That person, John, was not even supposed to be in their _world_. But here they were now, in John's world. Eragon highly suspected that John could control who went with, and thought that he might be able to do more than just that, but talking with Ashikia, Saphira knew John did not know how he did it. Ashikia and John were honest, and Ashikia anyway wouldn't dare lie to her mother. They arrived high above the building with daughter's-partner kept in and waited above while her partner contacted John.

* * *

John had been immediately moved to a sparsely furnished room with a couch, table and a few chairs. At least it had a comfy couch for him to wait on before anyone came in. After not so long, three men had come in to ask questions. He answered their questions as truthfully as he could, but he did not reveal much more than he had on the website. He kept magic and telepathy a complete secret. Near the end of the interview, Eragon contacted him to tell him that Ashikia was safe.

_Thank you so much, I am indebted to you. Go warn the other three,_ said John, sending Eragon images of the locations they lived, _get their Dragons hidden very well so they can't get found, but the Riders themselves must be found so the cops don't suspect something. Try hiding the dragon's heat as well, the cops may bring thermal imaging equipment._

_Ok. No need for such formalities, I would naturally help._

_Thanks._

John's attention was returned back to the temporal world by fingers clicking in front of his face.

"John. John, hello?" said one of the 'inspectors'. John glanced at the recording equipment on the table and then at his interrogators. There was one of them that had been pretty quiet, but the others didn't seem to care.

"Yes, sorry, I was thinking about something."

"As I was saying, we shall discuss what you have told us. We shall be back after a while to talk some more." Two of the three men got up. The quiet one had stayed seated.

"I want to stay and ask a couple more questions," the black-haired man explained.

"Ok, I'll leave the recorder for you." The grey-haired one said, placing a small device on the table. Once the other two had left the room, John saw the man left switch off the device.

"I believe you have not been entirely truthful with us," the man said.

"What makes you think that?"

The man pulled out his phone from his poked and after tapping the screen a few times, showed John a picture of him and Ashikia from the internet, and then slid his finger across the screen and John saw what the image of a cover of a book. The book had a picture of a blue dragon that looked like a rough picture of a dragon of a lighter blue than Ashikia. The book's title: Eragon. Then he cycled through three more images, red, gold and green dragons. Eldest, Brisingr and Inheritance. The last one resembled Fírnen.

The man knew he had a lead from John's extremely surprised facial expression. "I read often in my free time. It keeps my mind off some of the things I learn at work. This is the first of a series of books that I enjoyed greatly."

"I've never seen that book before," said John. He was not lying.

"That does matter. I strongly suspect you have _somehow_ managed to get dragons from that world. I have no idea how that is possible from this world, but it could have been caused by something on that side. I have read your profile and you have lived here your whole life, so unless you have fooled the system, someone from that world must have brought the dragons here. If you try use magic or telepathy on me, I will press the alarm button." He held up a little device with a red button, "But I guess, from the young age of your dragon, that you won't be experienced in either."

John decided that it would be pointless lying to the inspector. Besides, he had turned the recorder off. And he had apparently read a series of books about Eragon. "Last week Wednesday night, I woke up in Alagäesia. I met Eragon and saw the New Order of Dragon Riders. After much confusion, Eragon and I managed to talk with at least some understanding. On Friday night, Eragon and Saphira offered for me to see if a dragon would hatch for me. One did. Saphira talked with her and she decided that she wanted to be called Ashikia. Eragon and Saphira trained me. I told my friends and family about her. The next day, my friends were also there. Dragons also hatched for them." He paused for breath, "Anyway, this morning I woke up and Eragon and Saphira were here. That was where the report of the giant reptile came from."

"Okay. Thanks for the truth. I'm sorry I can't help get Ashikia."

"It's ok. Eragon rescued her. Oh, and one more thing. Eragon and I just figured this out this morning, but somehow I can control who switches worlds with me when I sleep. Eragon thinks I can do more, but I have no clue. It only started happening last week… Please don't tell anyone."

"It is ok, I won't. I can't imagine what experiments scientists will perform on the dragons if they find any. You should be let out of here tomorrow." The man got up and just before he opened the door and left he said, "If you don't mind, please take me with tomorrow. I have always wanted to see Alagäesia. The name's Albert" Then the man left John to himself. John thought to himself _I want Albert to come tomorrow._ As far as he knew, that was how he made people come. He didn't know if he had to say that each time, or if he would be able to access a 'list' once he understood his own apparent power.

* * *

**A/N:** Ok, longer chapter it is. I also prefer it, as it gives me more time to think things over and space to do stuff. Vanir. : Be patient. It is coming. And glad you like it. :) glaedr is awesome: pleasure.


	12. Chapter 12

**Double Lives - the multiverses collide**

Chapter 12

**A/N:** Some of you may be getting impatient for an antagonist. That person will be coming as soon as I can do it. I have planned the person, but I need John to discover more about his powers first. I have it planned, but I can't rush this part.

"What do you mean it vanished?!" The head of police shouted at the voice through the phone. He was about 1.8 meters tall. He had black, going on grey, hair. His face going red from anger.

"Well, sir...it's not there. The straps that were holding it down have been severed cleanly. All the guards at the locked doors found themselves on the floor. The only guards who saw anything were the ones nearest the room. They claim the door opened by itself and the dragon was there. One rushed for the alarm. Next thing they know, they both wake up on the floor a few minutes later."

"What about the cameras? Surely they would have recorded something? And how did it get past the locked doors?"

"I'm sorry sir, all the cameras that would have recorded the reptile escaping, their circuit boards have blown. No one saw anything. Not even the squad of guards at the entrance."

"Ok. No one saw anything." The chief massaged his temples. "Could it have been that boy or his family?"

"No Sir, the boy was in the middle of an interview and we have had his family's house under supervision."

"Couldn't one of them have just escaped from the house like the reptile did in the lab?"

"We have been keeping track of them with thermal and visual imaging. No cameras have broken, though all the glass seemed to get fixed. No one saw it happening. It just did all of a sudden."

"Ok, this is strange. Keep watching them. We will have to let the boy go soon, but keep a close eye on him. Also, keep the army at the ready. Those winged reptiles are clearly dangerous and powerful."

"Yes sir." Then the line went dead. The man sat down and began writing a note. As much as he wanted to keep the boy there and get more information from him, he legally had to release him and write a note to his school, apologising for his absence that day.

* * *

_I'll wait on the mountain for now. I'll talk to you in Alagäeisa,_ said the voice in John's mind. Eragon then severed their connection, leaving John alone with his own thoughts, sitting in the boring room.

John stood up as the door opened and the three men walked back in. "John, you are free to go. Here is a note excusing you from school today. Would you like lift home?" asked the one that had come in first with the greying hair.

"Thank you. Yes please," replied John.

"Ok. Albert, could you please take the boy home? You may go home afterwards. You may go home too, Gregory. Enjoy your Sundays"

"Yes Chief. Thank you Chief." the two responded. John followed Albert out the room, down a couple carpeted passages and out into the car park. Albert got into a white car with tinted windows and motioned for John to get into the passenger seat, not the back seats. As they drove towards John home, they talked in between John giving directions.

"Where are Eragon, Saphira and Ashikia now?"

"They are hiding somewhere on the mountain. Turn right. They don't want to risk coming back to my house. Don't worry, you can see them tomor- tonight."

"Ok, I never thou-"

"Turn left. Sorry."

"It's ok. I never thought that this would happen, but it could be quite interesting. Hey, I wonder what Christopher Paolini would think if you took him into his own books."

"Who's he? Turn left."

"The author of the Inheritance Cycle, the four books about Eragon and Alagäesia. But I don't think you should just randomly take him, talking to him first might be a good idea."

"Ok. Eragon might also react strangely to find out that he is from a book."

"Hey, with this...thing...you can do, can you choose a different book?"

"I really don't know..."

"Ok, well here we are. What happened to all the glass? I thought it was supposed to be broken."

"I guess Eragon decided to pay a visit.

"Ok. Goodbye."

"Bye. Thank you." John got out the car, waving to Albert then he walked into the house.

"John! I'm so glad you are ok!" his mom ran to him and hugged him as he walked out of the entrance hall.

"It's ok. I met a guy there who has read about Eragon. Apparently there are four books about Eragon's journey. The man's name is Albert. Also, I didn't get the chance to tell you this morning, but Eragon and I figured out that somehow I control who switches worlds. It explains why it happened to everyone…except me…"

"Ok…John, please be careful. I love you and don't want you to vanish."

"I will mom, don't worry."

"Ok. The school phoned to ask why you weren't there today, and I just told them that there was a strange thing that happened in the neighbourhood and the police wanted to ask you some questions. They had a hard time believing it."

"Don't worry, the chief of police gave me a note excusing me form school today." He handed the note to his mom.

"Ok. Oh, by the way, Eragon came by. He told us that he fixed all the glass, and we saw that. Though, we didn't see him. Anyway, we talked with him a bit before he left for the mountains.

"So, what's for supper?"

"Lasagne. Come, it is almost ready to dish. Dad is taking it out the oven."

They went to go eat supper and afterwards, John went sent an email to each of his teachers for his various subjects, asking what he had missed then asking what he missed. He then got into bed. Early again, but he just couldn't wait.

Just before he went to sleep, he decided to try experiment with his power. He didn't feel like having to search the island for where Albert appeared, so he thought to himself _I want Albert to be in an empty, good guest room in that building I first stayed in,_ he thought then fell asleep.

* * *

Burkhart headed back to his house. He felt much more relaxed than before, but there were still a couple issues bugging him. The main one being John…_ That human… his…gift…bothers me, it is too powerful. One could misuse that…though, if John would help the Order, Eragon, the council and him could help other in many different places. We could help others with their own struggles against oppressors, dictators and other impossible odds…_ he thought, smiling at the thought of helping others against their own 'Galbatorixes'.

When he arrived back at his house, he lay down and went to sleep. His dragon was already asleep, so he didn't wake the snoring purple one. He fell to his waking sleep quickly. Elves never slept fully as humans would. They always remained at least partially aware of their environment. The ceiling and the steady rhythm of Barioth's sleep became implemented many times in his waking dreams, shadowy figures dancing across his vision.

* * *

Albert woke up in a strange room. The bed was bad quality and the room's furnishings were odd. His first reaction was that he had been kidnapped. But then he noticed that the furnishings were basic, and medieval. The door was also wide open.

He was beside himself with joy. For the first time in many years of his lonely life, he was truly happy. The teen had done it. He rushed out the room and down the passage. As he walked out the front door, he walked into someone coming around the corner. He stumbled backwards and the person fell over. A squeak was also heard.

Once he had regained his balance, Albert reached out his hand to the person, saying "Sorry about that." Then he saw the person's face. "John! Thank you!"

"It's ok, and it is a pleasure." John smiled broadly.

Albert smiled back and then looked at the source of the squeak. He went down on his knees to get a better view of the small dragon and said "Hello Ashikia, it is a pleasure to meet you." he got up then noticed there were three other teenagers with John. They also had little dragons.

"Hello, I'm Albert." He said, shaking the hand of each one in turn. They greeted him and told him their and their dragon's names.

"Come, I want you to meet Eragon. He is probably waiting by the training field for me and my friends."

Albert nodded and followed the group of teens. When they arrived at the field, Albert saw Eragon standing next to a massive Saphira. She was bigger than he had imagined. He approached Eragon, who was looking quizzically at John and Albert, probably wondering why John had brought another person with.

He stepped forward to speak to Eragon before John did. He would have twisted his wrist by his chest as the book had said, but it had not explained exactly. So, instead he just bowed while he spoke. "Atra esterní ono thelduin"

A clearly surprised Eragon responded with "Mor'ranr lífa unin hjarta onr."

"Un du evarínya ono varda," he finished, "It is a pleasure to meet you, Eragon-elda and you, Saphira-elda. I am Albert."

"It is a pleasure to meet you too, Albert. How is it that you know the formal elven greeting so well? None of these four teenagers know of it. They probably don't know what most of it means."

"Well, I read the books about you."

"Books? About me? In your world? Please explain…"

"Well, I my world, there is a series of four books called the Inheritance Cycle. They are all about you and your fight against Galbatorix with the Varden."

"John, how come you didn't tell me of this?"

"Well, I only found out about the books yesterday at the end of the interview at the police station. From Albert. I thought it would be best to tell you in person." Said John.

"Ok…" said Eragon, unsure what else to say.

"I'll show you my memories of them." When he felt a presence around his mind, he thought of the books, picturing them for Eragon.

"This is strange, almost as strange as John being able to switch worlds…" said Eragon.

"Maybe they are somehow related?" suggested Frank.

"Maybe, but anyway, I need to carry on with training you four. Albert, do you mind just watching for today?"

"Not at all." Albert sat down a distance away, eager to watch Dragon Riders training.

Eragon trained the four until the evening. Together they went to talk and eat dinner in Eragon's house. He floated a table big enough for all six to eat at from an enclosed room in his few-roomed-house. Albert just smiled and listened to Eragon trying to explain to Frank, who had moaned about no meat, why Riders didn't eat meat. Although, the dragons kinda had to eat meat... After a while, their discussion once again wandered back to the strange things John could apparently do.

"I wonder if you can choose which fandom you go into? Or if it is not just specifically books and movies, but anything you can imagine? Or if it is just somehow these two worlds?" wondered Emily.

"John, why don't you try take us to a different fandom tonight? Try not to do one where we will die," suggested Eragon.

"ok… though I am having a blank…I can't think of any…" said John, "Can you guys think of something we can try?"

"Uhh... how about... Minecraft?" said Frank.

"Seriously, Frank?" asked John, "Any other ideas?"

Silence.

"Do Minecraft. The days are short, so if it works, we can be back here in no time."

"Fine, Frank. Minecraft it is... if I can do that..."

After talking more about different things for a while after they had finished eating. After they finished talking, they headed to bed. Albert headed to the guest room that Eragon had now given him permission to stay in.

* * *

Frank woke up on a hard, smooth surface. He opened his eyes and everything he saw was block! He jumped up, a big grin spreading across his face. He then picked up his little red dragon, Camroth, and started heading up the nearby mountain.

He quickly got tired, climbing a meter at a time and he stopped, panting halfway up the hill. He wondered if there was not an easier was to find the others. Then he remembered his telepathy and reached out with his mind around him. He couldn't reach very far, but he didn't sense any life except for something above him. A shadow passed over him. He looked up and saw a huge silhouetted, winged creature above him. His first response was to scream and run for the forest with Camroth.

Then the mind of Eragon touched his and said _Frank, calm down...I thought you knew Saphira by now..._

_Oh...sorry... I thought she was the Ender Dragon... _thought Frank, stopping running.

_The what dragon?_

_The Ender Dragon. It is one of the bosses of the game that you have to fight._

_Ok... Anyway, come I have found the others. _Eragon directed Frank from above towards where the others were on a flatland.

Once he arrived, by the others, Saphira and Eragon landed nearby and the latter dismounted. They walked up to the others. Frank went to John and said "This is so cool!"

"I'm glad you are enjoying yourself." said John, looking around.

"Teens these days and their games..." Albert commented disapprovingly.

"I'm going to go get wood," Frank said and walked to a tree at the edge of the nearby forest next to the flatland. He punched it as hard as he could, expecting it to break. "AHHH! MY HAND!" He shouted. His hand had broken, not the block.

Eragon rushed over and cast a spell. Franks hand itched as his bones and flesh got fixed. Once it was done, he still had an uncomfortable feeling in his stomach, but his hand was ok.

"Why did you do that?" asked Eragon, looking at Frank incredulously.

"It was supposed to break... it normally does..."

"I would expect your hand to break if you punched a 'tree'."

"No, the wood block was supposed to break... Try getting something to hit it that won't break."

Eragon sighed, but looked at Saphira. She walked over and swung her paw at the 'tree' and the blocsk gave way before her. They dropped into tiny blocks and the blocks she had not hit remained floating there, which confused both dragon and Rider.

Frank walked to the tiny blocks and stood next to them. Nothing happened, except for them floating there and spinning. He bent down and picked them up with a sigh, walking back to the others. His hands were full and he dropped them in front of the others. "Well...that was unexpected..."

Frank sighed and picked up blocks one at a time from the floating, rotating pile and threw them hard onto the ground where they popped into their former large selves. He asked Saphira to go break a couple more trees and then fetched the wood which he started to add to the house.

Once Frank had finished the basic house, he invited the others, who had been idly chatting and watching the whole time, into it. Except for Saphira, she wouldn't fit in.

* * *

Eragon found this blocky world incredibly odd. And soon after Frank had finished building his 'house', he went in. Noticing the sky with its square sun setting, he asked "How is the sun setting so soon? What is happening?"

"Days in Minecraft are only ten minutes," explained Frank.

"That is very odd..."

"It is so players don't have to wait hours before the day or night."

"Ok..." Eragon sighed and walked out the house to go stand next to Saphira. Then he spotted a green thing walking around in the distance and walked towards it, wondering what it was. When he got closer, it turned to him and he saw it awful looking face. It also started running at him. He backed away from it slowly, not making much of an effort to run away, since he was not sure if it was going to attack. Once it got one meter away from him it stopped, and started flashing white, making a "tssss" sound.

"Eragon! Run!" came a voice from behind him and he started running. There was an explosion from behind him and he was thrown off his feet, landing on his face. His back hurt alot. He cast spell to heal his back and then got up to see Frank in front of him.

"Are you ok?"

"Yes... What was that?"

"A creeper, they walk up to you and explode. Take my advice, kill anything blocky you see walking directly to you from darkness."

"Ok." And object flew past them and Eragon saw it get caught in the ground. An Arrow! He looked at the source of the arrow and saw a standing skeleton holding a crude bow. He rushed at it and chopped at it with his sword. All that happened was that it flashed red. He chopped at it again and it fell over, vanishing in a puff of smoke.

"Come, lets get back to the house," said Frank. Eragon chopped his way through a couple more creepers and skeletons, plus a giant spider and a couple green groaning men. When they reached the house, Eragon made an orb of light appear to light up the house while they fell asleep. "John, please take us to Alagäesia tomorrow. I shall be calling a council meeting."

"Ok."

They lay down and slept on the wooden floor. it was just as hard as everything else there. He wondered why John's world made such strange places, then fell asleep.

* * *

**A/N:** I thought I would give a bit of comedic relief from the seriousness of the plot. I hope you found it funny. Next chapter gets hectic.


	13. Chapter 13

Double Lives – the multiverses collide

Chapter 13

**A/N: **I am sorry this chapter took so long to get uploaded. I had a busy weekend with four projects due the next week. And two tests. And this chapter is rather long. I also thought I would warn you in advance, I am leaving on school camp on Saturday the 7th and it is a week long.

Wow… I keep an archive of all my chapters in one document that I update every few chapters. I just updated it, adding all the way to chapter 12. It is 62 Microsoft Word pages long…

Vanir. A. Medao, I knew not everyone would like it, that's why I hesitated to use it, but that is the last time in the foreseeable plot that they will go there. I needed something short and (hopefully) funny to give a break from the serious tone, especially with this chapter next.

This is set in the Old Republic times for SW.

* * *

As soon as he awoke, Eragon assembled the council members and the modern-worlders in the council room to discuss John's weird and incredibly useful 'power'. John had said he was fine with taking people to other worlds, but he didn't want to become a tool. He also wanted the freedom of choice, not to be forced to take specific people, and not others. This had sparked more discussion and debate.

"We need to find out how John does it! Then we could possibly do it, or we could create a device to do it," suggested Nothär, a dwarf. She sat on a tall chair with the dragon behind her the orange-white colour of metal in a dwarven furnace.

"I say John should be allowed to do as he wishes. He has already said he will help us, no need to experiment on him. Besides, he is a fellow Rider." Burkhart said. Eragon nodded to Burkhart. Even if the elves were not the most trusting, they were at least polite. Eragon remembered when Burkhart had been a Rider the first few months, he had hardly trusted anyone beside Eragon and Saphira.

"That is true…" said Nothär, not wanting to offend John.

Burkhart looked at John and asked, "John, you said that in most of the worlds, or 'fandoms', you know end happily. Is there the possibility of there being more than just the ones you know of?"

"I don't know… Quite frankly, I'm kind of scared to experiment with this," said John.

"Ok. Then, there are always the ones where the

"I propose that we could help the people in those …bad guy… is not defeated?"

"Yes."worlds. Once we have helped them, they could join us and aid us in aiding other worlds. It all starts with our two worlds. Or at least this one, the modern world does not seem the most co-operative in general."

"That sounds like a good idea," replied John. He looked at Eragon for approval.

"We could do that," said Eragon. _I'm sure other worlds will need help, but I am not sure about fighting hundreds of wars… it won't be good for us… _he thought.

_Maybe we can do a few at a time? We are Riders and Dragons, hence immortal to age, after all…_ commented Saphira.

_That is true…_ replied Eragon. He then announced "We can do a few at a time. I do not wish to be constantly fighting wars. We can help a few at a time. Since we are Riders and Dragons, we can help a few every few years. I think we should have an absolute minimum of twice the amount of time spent not at war as in war. That way we do not become warlike, and we are also able to heal from the horrors of war."

There was a murmur of agreement from the assembled council.

"That sounds like a good idea. I am fine with it," said John.

"Ok, John, shall we try start tonight? We will not have to become engaged in their war yet, but we can just see what the…'fandom' is about and how we would best help?" asked Arya.

"Yes, I agree," responded John.

"Any idea where we should go first?" Telankus asked eagerly. The Kull with his silver dragon behind him being the biggest two-legged in the room.

John thought a bit about fandoms that he knew that did not end well, and that there should be someone 'good' to aid them in helping them.

"How about Star Wars?" suggested Cornelius, "The Sith need to be wiped out permanently. Despite the Jedi wining each time, the Sith always come back and kill billions, even trillions of innocents."

"Ok, tell me more about this 'Star Wars'," said Eragon.

Cornelius took a breath then began, "It is in a galaxy with far more advanced technology than our one. They have space ships, with which they can travel between planets. There is a thing called the Force there. It is rare to be Force-sensitive. The Force has a 'light side' and a 'dark side'. The Force-sensitives usually group themselves into one of the two. The Sith are the main Dark Side group and the Jedi are the main Light Side. As you can guess, the dark side is bad. Most 'sentients' there fight with laser guns, but the Force-sensitives use swords made out of energy called Lightsabers. Being Force sensitive is much rarer than having a dragon hatch for you. From what I know, the Jedi Order is about the same size as this Order of Riders. You guys recruit from one continent. They recruit from an entire galaxy. Through it is possible to miss people."

"Ok. I am intersted to see this place," said Eragon,"Ok, I would like four council members to come with me, John and his friends." He looked around the circle of council members, seeing half of them raise their hands. "Ok, well… if it is ok with John, you six can come." It intrigued him that all the elves had raised their hands.

"I am happy to have you all," said John. He then stayed silent for a little bit. Eragon wondered what John was doing. Then John said "Burkhart, Svendör, Arya, Tasoula, Telankus, Botär and respective dragons, welcome to the expidition."

After talking a bit more about final plans and preparations, Eragon dismissed the council and trained the teens for the remainder of the day.

* * *

Burkhart woke on a very rough and sandy surface. He got up and looked around in amazement. He was in a mountainous desert-like area. He was not amazed by the landscape itself, but that he was actually there. Hearing about John's power was nothing compared to experiencing it. And there was also a very odd looking building off in the distance. With his sharp vision he could make out quite a bit. He wanted to head there but first he needed to find Barioth and the others. He could not see any of them.

He stretched his mind out to try finding the others. He avoided the building, though. He didn't know if there would be telepaths in there. He stretched mentally as far as he could go, but only found one of his companions, Barioth. Barioth was at the edge of how far he could detect. He could only contact his dragon enough to bring his attention in his direction.

He started sprinting towards where he had sensed his dragon. He arced around the building, wanting to avoid it which was roughly in between the bonded partners. Burkhart was able to sprint the whole way, due to elves being stronger and faster than humans. As they got closer and their link stronger, Burkhart could tell his partner was flying.

After some time, they met about a kilometre from the strange building. Happiness for being together rebounded across their telepathic link. _Did you sense any of the others? _Burkhart asked.

_No, did you?_ responded the dragon in his deep mental voice.

_No, Unfortunately. It seems we will have to head to the building. I don't want to get lost out in this mountainous desert. We should walk so that they don't freak out or anything, seeing a large flying dragon coming at them._

_I agree_. Burkhart and Barioth set of at a fast walk towards the building. When they neared the building, they saw a number of figures walking out the building and approaching them. When they got near, Burkhart saw that while most of them were humanoid, they were definitely not human. So much so that Burkhart highly doubted that they were elves who had changed their appearances with magic.

The humanoids took out little metal cylinders from which a thick beam of red light burst, in a point at a meter away from the original cylinder. Burkhart reached for his purple sword which he had gone to sleep with very uncomfortably with last night, as had the rest of the council. "Who are you?" asked the one in the front of the group.

* * *

Cornelius awoke with a blaster rifle in his face. "Wake up you! What are you doing in the passage of the chancellor's residence? How did you even get in this top security establishment, kid?!"

Cornelius raised his empty hands. He saw the little orange Kyloth being restrained further down the passage. Kyloth knew better than to fight these scary armoured men. He would not be able to fight them, but maybe he could convince them to let him talk to the chancellor. That would be hard, though. After thinking for some time, he said "I'm sorry. I'm called Cornelius. I'm a Jedi, but I'm having some difficulty with my powers…I keep waking in places that I am not supposed to be in."

"How are we supposed to believe that? Where is your lightsaber? And I've never seen you among the Jedi before. And also, I've never heard of a teleporting Jedi before," the leader, distinguished by markings on his armour, said.

"I can show you me levitating something. And also, the Jedi prefer to keep me secret, not wanting the public to know of me, lest a Sith tries to get me. As for my lightsaber, I don't have robes to hide it beneath and if I had either, I would be easily noticed as a Jedi."

"Uh-huh…sure… Ok, well show me levitation," said the lead guard, not convinced. The whole squadron still had their weapons trained on either him or Kyloth. The leader motioned to one of the soldiers who had a whole lot of things buckled to his armour, mainly spare ammo, grenades and other things. The soldier took off one of the free buckles and tossed it to Cornelius who caught it.

He knew Eragon had said to use magic without words was dangerous, but this was just lifting a small object, right? Besides, he didn't really have another alternative. He had already tested lightly and found that the soldiers had very strong mental barriers.

Cornelius mentally immersed himself into the magic. He concentrated hard on the metal buckle and made it rise into the air. He tried his hardest to keep it up and stop it from wobbling. He made it slowly back to his palm.

"Ok, well a Jedi you may be, there is no dark side radiating from you. I was trained to notice things like that. I may not be force sensitive enough to be a Jedi like you, but I can still do some things. Anyway, what is this creature with you?" the guard indicated the orange dragon.

"A rare pet that is very close to me."

"I've never heard of a species like this, but this galaxy is full of wonders. Come, you shall be escorted out now."

"Wait, while I am here I would like to speak to the chancellor about an urgent matter."

"I don't trust you enough to let you near chancellor Fotis. If you want, I can arrange that you talk to him via hologram. If you want to do it in private, we have a strong room that you can talk from."

"That would be fine," replied Cornelius, "Now, could you please let Kyloth go?" he asked.

The soldier holding the orange lizard put it down. Then the two were escorted to a large room that looked like it could withstand more than a few bombs. When they got there, the leader activated a hologram machine and stepped out the door. Cornelius knew without checking that they were watching the thick door, even though if he had wanted to escape, he would not have been able to.

After a little bit he saw a man appear on the hologram who he presumed to be the Chancellor. "Hello, Chancellor." He said.

"Hello, Cornelius. According to my men's report, you are a Jedi who wishes to speak to me. You can also teleport. Is this correct?"

"Not completely, sir."

"No need to call me sir, this is not the military. So, what is it you wish to tell me? And why did you lie to my guards?"

"The reason I lied and what I wish to tell you is the same. I am not a Jedi, I am not even from this universe. Do not freak out, I come in peace."

"What kind of prank is this? I don't have time for this." The chancellor got up from his invisible seat.

"Wait! I and my companions got separated coming here. One of my friends has the ability to change the universe that he is in each time he goes to sleep. He is also able to take others with and to choose which universe. See this orange reptile? It is a dragon. They do not exist here, as far as I know. I am bonded with him. Kyloth hatched for me in another world."

The chancellor sat down again and said, still a bit misbelieving, "So, where are these companions of yours? And how did you use the force if you are not a Jedi? Tell me more about this…gifted friend of yours. And what do you mean by 'bonded'."

"I do not know. I woke up here with a gun in my face, the only one who I knew that was with me was Kyloth," Cornelius answered, "It was not the force, but magic. I gained the ability when Kyloth hatched for me. My friend's name is John. I think it would be best for him to tell you more about his power, if we can find him. Also, in the world that dragons and magic exist, the dragon will only hatch for the perfect person. When they hatch, you become bonded. You become the closest two individual beings can be."

"Ok… so how do you suggest we find your friends?"

"Well, I woke up with my dragon nearby. All the ones that travelled with except one have dragons. If you find the dragon, you probably would find them. Some of the dragons are very big, others not so much"

"Ok. I shall talk with you later, I would appreciate it if you remained there for now. I shall alert police forces, the Jedi and the army to report to me if they find any." The hologram vanished out of existence and Cornelius sighed. He sat on the hard metallic chair, looking around the room. It had metal chairs and tables arranged around the cylindrical central computer. It was powered down now, though. The hologram projector had been placed next to it. The room had perfectly smooth walls without a single blemish or crack.

After a bit more than an hour, the hologram projector flickered to life and the Chancellor appeared, saying "We have located nine sentients with dragons and a tenth human that had been travelling with an odd human with a green dragon. The one called John ended up in the Jedi's temple. They seemed to be quite interested in him and sent more than a couple representatives with him. I hope they will discourage you from trying any funny business.

"There were more than a few problems caused by the ones with the larger dragons, and we had to stun one of them, regretfully, to be able to bring him here. That one had to be carried to our ship by a hover crane, let alone his dragon. Most of them cooperated after being told that they were being taken to you, Cornelius. Now they are all en route here via hyperspace, except John. The Jedi temple is on Coruscant. You lot have some explaining to do. But at least I know this is not another prank."

"Cornelius nodded and watched as the hologram vanished. He heard the doors opening behind him and some guards walked in. Cornelius recognized the leader who stepped forward and said "Come, you shall be taken to the senate building. There will be many Jedi there to keep an eye on you lot."

* * *

Burkhart unsheathed his sword, looking at the men with the solid beams of light. He presumed those were the lightsabers that Cornelius had talked about. Though, he had not said anything about the colours. They were all red. He didn't know if that was normal, but the group definitely seemed threatening.

"I am Burkhart, and who may you be?" he said.

"You do not need to know who I am. What are you doing here?" the one in the front asked. He was clearly non-human, with tentacles coming from the sides of his nose, a bit like a moustache. His skin was also red.

_Very well, two can play at that game._ He thought before saying, "You do not need to know that."

The red one held out his hand and Burkhart felt his throat constricting for no apparent reason. _Magic,_ he thought, reaching for his throat and finding nothing there. Barioth was also feeling the same sensation. Then they were suddenly able to breathe and tentacle-face spoke again, lowing his hand slightly "You shall answer me truthfully, or suffer."

"How about no?" asked Burkhart. This time he was prepared. He remained calm as he lost the ability to breathe. He concentrated and sent the man flying back, behind the rest of his comrades. The sensation immediately stopped. Tentacle-face was quick to recover, though, leaping over the heads of his comrades and brandishing the light-stick like a sword. The rest also looked ready for a fight.

"How dare you. You shall be punished within an inch of death, but I need to find out how you got to this planet. Not to worry. A couple of my men are of naturally telepathic species." The man started running at Burkhart who parried the swipe from the lightsaber with his own sword.

"And I shall find the composition of this sword of yours. Metal like that shall be very useful in making armour." The man said, preforming a surprisingly fast manoeuvre with the lightsaber, but Burkhart managed to parry that blows. This person was as fast as an elf, and as strong as one too.

After some time fighting, the man clearly realized they were equally matched in swordsmanship, and stepped back, raising his hand again. Before the man could start strangling him again, Burkhart cast two consecutive spells, using words this time. One sent him flying back to his comrades, and as the man and his allies ran at Burkhart, his second spell caught them in thin air, stopping their movement completely.

If looks could kill, Burkhart would have been Alderaan receiving the Death Star's laser beam. But they couldn't. The lot stood there glaring at Burkhart, who walked up to them and said. "I do not take kindly to impolite people. This all started with you merely not wanting to tell me who you are." He looked at the stuck and glaring leader, walking towards him. "I'm a council member of the Order of the Riders. You should think before you pick a fight. Lucky for you, I am like you, according to first impressions, so I shall let you live. Just know that you should not mess with me, and _you_ shall be the ones answering my questions."

He walked away, ending the spell and heard them falling on the ground behind him. He turned around just in time to see a hand pointed to him as an arc of lightning shot towards him. It was every as bit as painful as the trees in Ellesmere had told him. More arcs of lighting also shot towards Barioth from another source. He cried out in pain as the world fell to blackness.

"Put him in the prison we keep for stray Jedi. Put the beast in a cage. A strong one," the leader said, "Get Darth Senance, his telepathic abilities will come in great handy now. Also, get them neural restraint collars so they won't be able to do anything."

If Burkhart were conscious, he would have felt himself and Barioth being Force-lifted towards the strange building.

* * *

John sat in the hoverbus, looking at Ashikia who lay on his lap. He felt the gazes of a few of the Jedi on him and Ashikia. They tried to be polite, but a couple just couldn't resist. As they flew to where the chancellor, and apparently Cornelius, were, he thought back to the events that had led up to him being there with so many Jedi.

He had woken up in the training hall for the younglings. He had been woken up by a noisy group of younglings all talking about the strange person and creature sleeping in their practise area. The Jedi trainers had immediately taken him to the Grandmaster, a human called Tyrell Omi-ren. They had not spoken long before the Chancellor contacted the Omi-ren. After the conversation, Tyrell looked at John strangely, well, more strangely than before, then they set off to the Senate building.

The Grandmaster had gone to the front of the bus, while the twelve other Jedi and John sat in the back. John wondered if they were being a bit excessive in their escort, but when he asked, he was told that he would be told later.

As the airbus arrived, some Jedi took advantage of the noise of them disembarking to have small whispered conversations. There were only two phrases that he caught, but they did not make much sense. "very sensitive" and "be trained".

Then they headed into the senate building and John was greeted by Cornelius and the Chancellor in person. The Jedi dispersed somewhat, but four Jedi remained there. The Chancellor and Tyrell left the room together, probably to discuss various matters. John and Cornelius looked at each other briefly then continued staring at the floor.

* * *

**A/N: **I couldn't bare to make you wait any longer, so I decided that I would finish this chapter here. It shall be continued in the next chapter, of course.


	14. Chapter 14

**Double Lives - the multiverses collide**

**Chapter 14**

**A/N: **And, I'm back! I hope you find this one interesting. My legs ache from the many hikes on camp, but not to worry. It was fun. And I also have a new summary for this story!

Vanir, I understand your dislike of the many genres, but soon enough you will have the overall plot revealed. there is one, main focus. The main two staging worlds are still the 'real world' and Alagäesia.

* * *

Darth Sinonic listened as his lieutenant made his report on his findings when searching the offworlders' minds. _That old elf and his dragon are going to be rather useful in this coming war. The Jedi will stand no chance._ he thought. The orange skinned lieutenant bowed, indicating he was done making the report.

"You have done well, my apprentice. Go now and prepare the neural collars with remote control and bring it to me. Then turn the projectors on in the cell, make it look…luxurious. You, get our spies to try locate this John." He said.

"Yes master." The two cloaked figures left the room.

Sinonic leaned back in his chair and thought _He is force-sensitive, that's why I thought he was a Jedi at first. I shall get him to turn to the dark side. That's easy enough. Anger, pain and hate are emotions easy to create._ He waited for his underlings to return before getting up.

"Master, the Chancellor has made no attempt to keep the others secret. He issued a public announcement that anyone who sees a dragon should report it to the authorities immediately. And our spies in the armies and police tell us that all eleven of the ones not from this galaxy and their pet dragons are in hyperspace on their way to, or already at the chancellor's palace. We won't be able to get John with our current forces."

Sinonic took the remote that was held out to him by his other apprentice and said "I also doubt that 'Burkhart' will be able to best eleven of his kind. We will have to use stealth."

"You plan to get him to join us, master?"

"Yes. Did you fit the dragon with one too?"

"Yes, master."

"Good, good." He chuckled evillby. If they resisted, he would be able to weaken their minds so much so that they would be unable to move even their bodies so long as the collar was activated. "Come, let us pay our guest a visit in his 'luxury cell'."

* * *

Burkhart awoke in a strange looking room. The bed was less comfortable than it looked, but a bed nonetheless. He looked around. Everything was pristine and looked very fancy. He fingered the ring around his neck. It was some sort of collar.

He extended his mind, hoping to search for Barioth. He was in in a much larger room 'next door' to his room.

The door opened and in walked the tentacle-faced man with the red skin.

"Hello Burkhart. I'm sorry about our misunderstanding earlier. You are our welcome guest."

"Uhh… ok," said a disbelieving Burkhart, "then what's the collar for?"

"A safety measure, if you will. Just don't try anything stupid."

"What do you want from me?"

"Your help. My enemy has all eleven of your companions in his custody."

"You want me to free them?"

"You won't be able to. He controls the galaxy."

"Galaxy?"

"All the stars you see at night, that is the galaxy. Most have planets orbiting around them. There is life, sentient and not, on many of them."

That reminded Burkhart a bit of Galbatorix. "Ok… so then what do you want from me?"

"Join us, and then when you are in your world again, you can get the others to join us. The most important is John. He will allow us to join you in liberating many different worlds."

"How do you know so much?"

"You… talk in your sleep."

He had never talked in his sleep before. Barioth would have told him, but Burkhart decided not to pursue it further, that might be unwise. "Ok. So, how do I help?"

"First, I shall train you in the Force. You are sensitive to it."

"Ok, then lets get started." Sinonic lead Burkhart out the room and then lead him to a courtyard a little distance away.

"Please let Barioth out too," requested Burkhart.

After a moment's hesitation, Darth Sinonic went and opened the doors to Barioth's cage. He lead the dragon to its Rider and then said "Let us begin our training."

They continued training for some time. Burkhart remained suspicious. Everything the alien told him made sense with Cornelius' description of the 'Dark Side'. Getting their power from hate, pain and anger. Letting the emotions rule you. That went against what he was taught by Eragon. But he waited and played along, waiting for an opportunity to strike.

The opportunity came when in the form of sparring practise. He was given back his sword to test his skill. The Sith lord wanted him to fight hard, to see the extent of his skills. Burkhart fought hard enough to keep the red-skinned alien at bay. Burkhart prepared for an attack to maim or kill tentacle-face. Sinonic was as fast as an elf, due to the Force. But an elf didn't have the force. He was now one of the fastest and strongest elves alive.

He prepared to use the force training he had received, while resisting the growing temptation of the anger and hate.

When he was ready, he launched a massive salvo of blows onto Darth Sinonic so fast even he couldn't follow the blade. The leader of the Sith tried his best to defend, but he fell before the blows.

As Burkhart was about to finish the leader off, the audience of Sith, that had gone unnoticed by Burkhart until now, unsheathed their lightsabers and charged at him.

Before they could reach him, he cast a spell that sent them all flying back and pinned them to the wall. It also pinned any newcomers to the wall.

He spoke, "I will join my true allies, the ones of the Light, the Jedi and my fellow Riders, not you Sith. None of you can stop me from broadcasting your posi- AAAH!" He yelled and fell down, unable to move. Barioth also collapsed.

He could barely think, or do anything. On his neck was the source of the mental chaos. Using all of his remaining will power, he joined minds with Barioth. Their minds one, they managed to get just enough control for Burkhart to lift his body unsteadily. He prepared to free himself from the collar with a spell then use one of the twelve death words to kill the Sith present.

Before they could speak, their combined consciousnesses felt more pain. Different to that from the strange collars. It must have been what paper felt like when crumpled up and thrown into a bin. They were gone.

* * *

_Curses_ thought Sinonic as he lay on the ground. He groaned and reached for the remote transmitter for the neural disruption collar in the pocket of his robe.

He chuckled as the two fell to the ground. A chuckle that quickly turned to coughing up blood. He pressed a few buttons on the remote and set the collars to deactivate in 10 seconds. That's all the time he would need.

He focused on the Force. Preparing for a Transfer Essence (look it up on the wookie- /wiki- pediea). Then the elf stood up again, although slowly. Sinonic concentrated harder. Success. His 'essence', as Force Users called it, went flying into Burkhart.

The power required the host's mind to be weaker then the user. That was currently true. It also destroyed the Host's conscience. Sinonic tried his best to avoid destroying the memories, though, because those would be useful in his new body. The user's body was destroyed in the process. Sinonic didn't care. He...it... was dying anyway.

He collapsed to the ground again and waited for the collar to deactivate. When it did, he got up, feeling very strange, and heard thudding as he did. _Great... I forgot the dragon_. he thought. He turned around sharply. He heard a smashing sound, seeing the beast knocking over an ornamental plant pot. He felt that in his tail. _Wait, what? _

What he saw was both the dragon and his new body. He saw them separately and together. Something was odd here. He had first dismissed it as the elf's strange body, but now he realized the most strange thing.

He flexed his body, testing it out. _Bodies_… he corrected himself. Yes, you read correctly. He now has two bodies.

With each body, he examined the other. He was most interested in his winged, scaly body. He felt things that he had never felt before. _This is great. It's going to take some getting used to, but this is amazing_. he thought.

He looked the the elf's memories and saw that the partners had become as close to one entity as two sentients can be. He _**was**_ one entity. He had taken over both when they were joined. _One that is two, two that are one _he thought. It sounded a bit like a riddle.

He yelled-roared up into the open sky that he could see from the courtyard he was collectively in. This was going to be fun.

He turned to the pile of empty clothes that once contained his body and picked up the Lightsaber and a couple more devices. He pressed a button on the collars' remote and they fell to the ground.

He once again glanced at his other selves, noting how his dragon-self could easily crush anyone in the room, including his elf-self. But that would be just plain stupid.

He reviewed the elf's memories and found how to free his underlings. He ended the spell once he had found out how. Some of the younger Sith ran at him again, but he Force-pushed them away and they were held back by the older ones.

Darth Coricalus, the second in command stepped forward, bowing and said "Essence Transfer, very tough but a clever move, master. Even I am not sure if I can pull it off. But it appears you have both the sentients. How?"

"Their minds were melded together just before I took over." He heard a gruff sound coming from beside him and realised he was attempting to talk with both bodies. He would need to somehow train himself to operate them separately. He didn't want to cause an accident with one body while trying to use the other. "Could you all please leave. I wish to practise with these bodies alone."

The assembly bowed and filed out of the room. He began examining both the sets of memories, which was quite a task for the elf who was older than 3 centuries. He also practised using the bodies independently, magic and telepathy.

The close link between Dragon and Rider was enough to keep his mind from splitting and becoming two, copies of each other. He wondered what would happen if he split. He would eventually begin to be slightly different. One mind only focused on the dragon and the other the elf. But he was glad his was one.

After some time, he started to get the hang of it. A plan began to formulate in his mind. The concept of Eldunarí intrigued him a lot.

During his practise, he suddenly felt very tired. He couldn't stop himselves from lying down and falling asleep. He woke up in what he recognised from the memories as Burkhart's house. He sat up and looked at his other self, smiling. He both stood up and began walking to the forest, trying to avoid the early-rising Riders who had begun to walk the streets.

* * *

After some time waiting, the majority of the others had arrived. Eragon had been first after John. When Arya arrived some time later, the two hugged and looked like they were about to kiss, but then they glanced nervously at those watching and shuffled awkwardly away from each other. Saphira and Firnen didn't seem to mind being watched, they lay down next to each other. They watched Ashikia playing around them and John.

John watched Ashikia too. He definitely knew there was something between the three. They seemed closer than the other hatchlings to the two large dragons, but Ashikia would not tell. She had implied he will be told later.

The Chancellor had seemed confused as to what he should do. For a while he had just been talking to Eragon, but John could not hear what they said. They every now and then glanced at him or someone else, but mainly him. John had sat self-consciously between Cornelius and Albert.

At some stage a couple of the council members went to calm an angry Telankus and his dragon.

After the two leaders had finished talking, they turned to the others and the Chancellor said "You shall stay in our guest quarters. It is getting late. We shall talk tomorrow. Tonight you can find out where Burkhart and Barioth have been. Each planet has different cycles, so they might already be asleep or might still be awake when you fall asleep."

They nodded and headed to the airbus where they were taken to another building on the city-planet. This building was visually appealing. It had fountains and many beautiful plants. They fancy hotel also catered for larger sentients, so Telankus could fit in. Unfortunately the passages and rooms were not big enough for the older dragons, so the council members' dragons slept on the roof just above their Rider's room.

After chatting while eating some rather strange cuisine, they headed to bed.

* * *

Darth Sinonic had found the perfect place. It was one of the Rider's watchtowers there were no guards on duty at the time, so he began work. Sometimes the most obvious place was the best.

After studying memories of the words and the structuring of spells, he started by making a hole in the thick wall by liquefying a patch of it.

He knew from the memories he had studied that it was best for a dragon to wait very long before disgorging their Eldunarí, when they were very large. He had decided that Barioth, now himself, was big enough, standing at about 6 meters tall and 18 meters from nose to tail tip.

He used his body's natural instincts when straining the right muscles. He felt it coming out. It was an incredibly weird sensation. It felt like he was vomiting up a rock; a spiky, faceted one at that.

He held out his hands to catch the large gem coming out his other, massive mouth. He then cleaned it and put it into the wall. He said a few more words of power and the wall solidified, looking once again as it had before. The displaced stone vanished into the ground without a trace.

His chest long, scaly throat and hurt. That had been a painful experience. He had felt worse, however. He now had three 'bodies', though all that one of them did was sit in the wall, containing his consciousness. He was still not split. Sinonic shivered with delight, accidentally knocking over a nearby shrub with his tail. He headed to the city again, glad to have his backup. He would now have to infiltrate the Riders, acting as Burkhart and Barioth, and capture John. He started by heading to the dormitory, greeting all Riders he came across as Burkhart normally would have, with a silent nod.

* * *

John woke up and stroked Ashikia gently, lying in bed for a while. He enjoyed the back-rub, even though he was giving Ashikia it. Ashikia made a soft, rumbling, purr-like sound and he felt the comfort flowing between their mental link.

Eventually, he decided it was time to finally get up, so he got up and changed. He ate his fruity breakfast that he found by the door, and he also passed Ashikia the meat that had come with. As he watched Ashikia hungrily tear up the meat, he wondered who's job it was to bring the food to everyone early each morning.

After finishing breakfast, John and Ashikia walked out the room and down the passage. He waited for his friends just outside the building. He looked around at the riders passing while Ashikia ran around him. He saw Frank first, walking down the passage. Before Frank arrived, John picked up Ashikia who was making him a bit dizzy. "Morning," he said.

"Greetings, sentient," Frank held up his hand, moving his ring finger and middle finger apart.

John face-palmed and said, "There is a difference between Star _Trek _and Star _Wars."_

Frank just chuckled.

Just as they were joined by Emily and Cornelius, John saw Burkhart walking up to him.

"Hello, how are you?" John asked. Ashikia ran towards Barioth.

Burkhart smiled and said "I'm great. I have finally found you guys."

"Where were you yesterday?"

"We were on a barren planet with not sentient life on it. I was lonely."

"Ok. Well, I'll make you end up with us next time. If I don specify where people should wake up, they always just seem to wake up in some random place, though always near their dragons it seems."

"Ok. John, can you please come with us?"

"Ok. Where we going to go?"

"For a walk in the forest."

John felt a presence touching his mind. It was definately not an elven or dragon mind, nor a friendly one. He threw up his mental defenses and said "What's goi-" the presence had annihilated John's mental defences and took control of his mind and body, closing his mouth. He also sensed through their link that Ashikia was being controlled, by their link. His thoughts were suppressed and he couldn't communicate. He found his mouth speaking without his permission, saying "Ok, lets go."

His legs started moving, taking him towards the two Council members who turned around, walking in the direction of the nearest forest. He and Ashikia found themselves unwillingly following the two. He wanted to call to his friends to save him, but he couldn't. They just watched him go. He was also heading away from the training ground where Eragon was undoubtedly waiting.

* * *

Eragon saw an out-of-breath trio of human teenagers running towards him. When they and their dragons arrived, Emily said between pants "Something is …very wrong …with Burkhart... He came and asked... John to walk with him… then John randomly…said "What's goi-"... And froze... He then left with… Burkhart. I touched his… mind telepathically… and sensed a… very strange mind… surrounding his. It seemed to come from…Burkhart"

"Where did they go?" Asked Eragon. He climbed on Saphira, not caring that she was bareback.

"Forest…other side of town…" Frank contributed.

Saphira took off, flying towards the Rider's City. They soon reached the forest on the other side and Eragon searched it with his mind. He soon found 'Burkhart' and Saphira began to descend. Eragon attempted to communicate with the strange conscienceness. _Stop now, leave John alone, and what have you done to Burkhart? _He said. Saphira landed just as Eragon heard the word "Slytha!".

John collapsed asleep instantly. Eragon and Saphira also felt very tired. Burkhart also appeared very tired. Eragon knew he couldn't stop himself from falling asleep, so he reached mentally for the city. He sensed the others who had been with them in Star Wars yesterday were also falling asleep. Not having enough energy to search for specific people, he told all the Riders in his decreasing range P_repare for a big war. If I am not here tomorrow, just remember not to trust Burkhart or Barioth. Something has replaced their consciencenesses. It is controlling John. Try free John, but I fear for the existence of the…old…Burkha… _He collapsed face-first onto Saphira's back and the world faded to darkness.

* * *

**A/N:** Please review! I want to know what you think. Also, feel free to PM me and/or follow/favourite my story.


	15. Chapter 15

**Double Lives – the multiverses collide**

**Chapter 15**

**A/N: **Darth Sinonic won't be the main antagonist. If you think he is scary, just wait… But I'm glad I finally managed to get an antagonist into play. The main one will show after Darth Sinonic is defeated, which won't be too soon. Vanir, you shall get your action yet, I promise.

* * *

"Letta slytha."

As John awoke with a start, his thoughts resuming from what they had been just before he was put into his artificial sleep. _I don't want to wake up there, I want to wake up…_ his thoughts faded as he realised that he had just woken up I the place the entity had forced him to make himself wake up in. In the courtyard of the Sith headquarters.

John stood up and dusted himself off. He looked around, turning to see the whole courtyard. A figure in his peripheral vision caused him to tense. It was Burkhart. Ashikia huddled between John's legs. "Burkhart, what is going on?" he asked, scared. Barioth was not in sight.

"The weaklings Burkhart and Barioth are dead. Their bodies are mine now," said Burkhart's voice.

A shiver ran down his spine. "What did you do to them?"

"A simple Transfer Essence. I considered taking your body, but there were pros and cons to that. You are much weaker than either of them. But your world-changing skills are a useful gift. Burkhart's archive of memories has proved valuable in this decision to keep his body."

"He is still there? Burkhart! Come back! We need you!" John shouted.

"Memories and consciousness are two different things. He is gone. You will never get him back. Anyway, I have learnt from his memories that there was a greatly effective leader several decades ago in Alagäesia who went by the name of Galbatorix. There is a lot I can learn from him and, if he were alive, vice versa. A simple way of ensuring you shall serve me is to do as he did. Make you swear to obey me in the ancient language. It will benefit us both: I keep the stronger Rider and dragon and have access to your skills; you get to continue your pathetic existence in the multiple universes you have access to, the multiverse."

"I'll never join you. I'd rather die," said John. He looked around for something sharp. There was the sword that was strapped to Burkh- the person's waist. That would be stupid, so he looked around more. There were pieces of shattered pottery on the ground to his left. They were sharp enough, but were they strong enough? It was worth a try. He made a dash for them.

Just as John's hand was about to reach the best-looking piece of pottery, he floated up into the air. For some reason he knew it was the Force. He kicked and punched air as he floated back to where he had been standing before his crazed dash.

"Now, now. I'll have none of that. I'll have to include that in your oaths. Let's get started now."

John knew it was coming, so he threw up the best mental defences he could muster. He concentrated on something as hard as he could, Ashikia's deep blue scales. Eragon had taught him that focussing on one object or thought would make it harder for attackers to gain access to his mind.

The mental attack came shortly after he had thrown up 'walls' around his mind. To his surprise, John actually managed to stop the initial surge of the other's invisible attack, but the second wave broke through with ease.

John once again went through the disconcerting feeling of his body not doing what he wanted it to. His mouth moved, saying many words of the Ancient Language that he didn't understand. The Sith made no attempt to hide the purpose behind the words, though, and John understood roughly what he was saying.

"I swear to serve my new master, Darth Sinonic, to the best of my abilities. I will not attempt to undermine any of his instructions nor disobey them unless obeying them would cause me to become unusable to him, or harm him. I will not intentionally harm my master or myself. I will not speak out against him or his actions. I shall show him respect. I will also grant him access to my mind without resistance."

John fell to his knees in despair when the presence withdrew from his mind. The Sith lord stood there, gloating over his latest prize. After Sinonic had apparently tired of examining his newest asset, he walked towards one of the arched doorways exiting the courtyard.

"Follow me to your room."

John followed. It was not like when he followed due to being mind-controlled, but he could not not follow Sinonic. He could control his legs while walking. He could swerve or zigzag as much as he pleased, as long as he followed Darth Sinonic. He could not do otherwise.

When they arrived at an empty room with a simple small bed against the wall and a metallic chair and table in the centre, John was told to wait there until Sinonic returned. The door was left open when the corrupted elf left.

After a minute, John tried walking out the room, but he stopped moving his legs when he got to the door. No amount of willpower could get him to move his own feet one step forward, so he went back. He walked to the wall and tried punching it, but he slowed his fist just before he hit it just enough that the impact did not hurt.

John went to his new bed, lay down and started sobbing. Why had this happened to him? Was there any way he could end it? This had to be a dream, it had to. He tried pinching his hand, but couldn't press hard enough to hurt himself. His sobs broke out into cries of lamentation.

* * *

Eragon jumped out of his bed and ran out of his room, down the passage and to John's room. He burst in the door and looked frantically around the room. John was not there. Eragon sighed and solemnly walked back to his room, closing John's door behind him. He went to his bed and planted his face in the pillow. He groaned. _One major war is enough for any lifetime… I thought that helping other worlds with already existing would be enough. Now we have a war that shall expand all universes. Burkhart has taken control of John. But Emily said that she sensed a very strange mind, unlike any she sensed before. Normally elves' minds would seem strange at first, but the young ones have hade exposure to an elf's mind from me… maybe someone from this universe could have taken control of Burkhart…?_

After some time of lying on his bed, Eragon got up and changed to the space-age clothes that had been given to him at the Chancellor's request. He fumbled around with them for some time, not knowing exactly how they were meant to go on. He eventually found a position where they felt reasonably comfortable and wore them like that.

He went to the dining hall, which was apparently called a cafeteria, and sat down. Each time another of the group arrived, at the massive circular table reserved for the group, he was bombarded with questions and he told them to wait until everyone was there.

The last person to arrive was Emily. When Emily arrived, the sluice gates were opened and Eragon was flooded with questions. "Quite!" he commanded over the din, "I will explain what I know and then you can ask your questions in an orderly manner. All that I know is that someone or something has taken control of Burkhart and Barioth and used them to take control of John. I do not know how it has taken such control of him; I could not sense Burkhart's mind at all. John was being controlled by regular old mind control. I would not be surprised if he has or is going to be forced to swear oaths of fealty in the Ancient Language to the being. I have no idea where any of them are now…"

There were no questions after his speech, much to Eragon's surprise. They all seemed to be deep in thought. After a prolonged silence, Emily asked "Is there any way we could track him?"

"Not that I am aware of. Though, the thing that took John, Ashikia, Burkhart and Barioth seems to have forgotten to stop John from taking us with into each world. We can only hope that this continues and we can eventually meet with and save him."

The group talked to the Chancellor about the grave matter as soon as he arrived. The Chancellor immediately gave orders for all available armies to mobilise and prepare for an invasion-scale event that could happen anytime in the near future, even tomorrow. Eragon, the Chancellor, the Rider Council members, the senate and the Jedi council also assembled for an emergency meeting to discuss tactics for the high possibility of the upcoming war. They also warned listening stations posted near the unknown sector to be on full lookout.

* * *

John had cried till he couldn't any longer. He had always wondered how a person could become suicidal, now he knew. Though, he was a special case. But he could not kill himself. He could not escape.

He was roused by a shove on his shoulder. He rubbed the dried tears from his eyes then looked to see Darth Sinonic standing over him. "Get up, sleepy-head. Time for some training."

John had barely registered what he was told before he got up. Ashikia followed him, not wanting to abandon her Rider in his tough times.

"Come."

John, still half asleep, got up and followed the Sith lord, too tired to even bother resisting himself. It wouldn't have worked anyway. Soon enough they arrived at the room the now-awake John guessed was where he would be training. The room did not seem particularly special to John and he didn't feel like trying to figure it out.

"I can tell you are sensitive to the force, I sense it flowing through you. I shall be training you in it for the next few days, and then we shall go recruiting across worlds. I want you to be able to hold your own in our upcoming battles, so I shall also be training you in magic, sword/saber play and telepathy. Burkhart has instructed many students, so combining the training methods I can cover most of your known talents, but I also wish to experiment and determine what other skills you have, as there could be more. Don't worry; I will try not to hurt you…much. For now I shall just take a midi-chlorian count to determine how force-sensitive you are. Hold still."

John just sighed and looked at the floor while Sinonic lifted John's sleeve and took a blood sample. John flinched as he felt the brief, sharp prick in his arm. John watched as Darth Sinonic plugged the small capsule containing some of his blood into a device. He saw the screen light of the device reflecting faintly on the elf's face and then the brief expression of shock which was quickly replaced with a face of indifference so good, any gambler would have been jealous.

"You have a…good midi-chlorian count. Let us begin our training. I first need to teach you how to sense the force. I will also not be testing you in anything as I did with Burkhart. You still need training. He had already had completed training and was a council member. Let us begin."

"Yes, master…" With that, John's training commenced.

* * *

After training for some while, John was beginning to be able to sense thing in the force. As with the magic training with Eragon, he surprised himself by how quickly he advanced. He wondered how he had gotten these powers. He wondered how many more there were.

"Master, since training is done, may I please look around my new home?" John asked.

"Just don't touch anything you are not supposed to."

John nodded and explored the building. The Sith that he passed gave him stares, but none seemed to want to cause problems with him. _Are they scared of me? Did Darth Sinonic tell them to leave me alone? Is it something else?_ He wondered as he wandered.

There were many rooms, full of interesting stuff. Most of them seemed to be empty. Eventually he got to a room which sparked an idea in his mind. The communications centre. He would send a message to his friends. He knew Darth Sinonic would punish him severely. But he was not technically disobeying him either. He had to alert his friends. He was supposed to. The main problem was that he was not sure how to operate it.

John closed the door and turned to the many computers. He tried to remember what Cornelius had told him. Cornelius would be so useful now. He looked closer at the many board to find the button that looked the most likely; one that was worn and obvious. Not one of the smaller fine-tuning knobs.

After pressing some buttons at semi-random, a hologram of himself and Ashikia appeared in front of him. That must have been the recording thingy, so he cleared his voice and began to speak.

"I am John Avner. I have been captured by the Sith and am on their planet. Darth Sinonic has only trained me in neutral force, just the basics. But I fear he may soon make me join the Dark Side. He is planning to use me to travel the multiverse and gather an army, but he said he shall train me here for a few days first. But when, not if, he finds out I have sent this message, he will surely accelerate that. Please hurry."

He pressed the button that activated the hologram and a computerised voice said "Recording saved." John pressed a couple buttons next to the recording button wandering which one was send. The voice said "Message sent to Darth Sinonic's datapad."

John frantically pressed buttons, and then the voice said again "Message broadcasted towards core worlds. Warning: This communications array does not have enough range to reach the core worlds."

John sighed, almost crying again. He also would not be able to get into the room again, he was sure of it. He had to get out before he was caught. He got up, picked up Ashikia and ran out the door, turning to run down the passage. He ran into a very angry looking elf.

"You are right about one thing; I'm going to show you my point of view. You'll see how foolish that Republic is and agree with me. But first: you were naughty." John dropped Ashikia, getting her out of harm's way, as Darth Sinonic raised his right hand and arcs of electricity jumped from his fingertips into John. He fell to the floor, convulsing and screaming in pain. He knew he was too valuable to Sinonic to be killed, but that didn't stop the Sith from torturing him to death's edge. Eventually the pain got too much to bear and his brain couldn't handle it, so he passed out, unconscious.

* * *

"Chancellor, several of our listening stations just detected a transmission from the unknown regions. It was not long enough range to reach Coruscant. They were able to determine the transmission's system of origin," the hologram of the General said.

"Play it for me." The Chancellor ordered.

The figures of John and Ashikia appeared and John spoke his message then the recording ended. The General appeared again. The Chancellor looked at Grandmaster Tyrell to his right, who nodded. He then looked at Lead Rider Eragon seated to his left, who also nodded.

"Mobilise the armies and send them there immediately. Send a cruiser here for our Jedi and Rider friends. Tell them to meet the Jedi and Rider cruiser one system away from the origin of the transmission."

"Yes, Sir! General Onassis out." The hologram turned off.

"I shall go, along with all my council members. Could you please take care of the three young ones and the non-Rider?" said Eragon.

"I will also go, and take with half the Jedi, but I shall leave the other half. The galaxy cannot go unattended while we fight our war. I shall send four Jedi to look after the four you are leaving, Eragon," Said Omi-ren.

"Thank you, Grandmaster. Chancellor, I know your troops are ready. I presume you shall have to stay?"

"Yes, the affairs of the Republic need much attention."

"Shall we leave immediately?" Tyrell Omi-ren asked.

"Yes, please. By the time you get to the starport, our nearest cruiser should be here."

"Ok. Goodbye."

Eragon and Tyrell left the Chancellor's office and went their separate ways to go gather their forces. Soon enough, the half the Jedi and Riders on Coruscant were in hyperspace, heading towards the rendezvous point.

All hell was about to break loose on the Sith. Or maybe the Sith would be the hell that will break loose?

* * *

**A/N: **MaxFR68, I'm glad you like it. I shall be adding more universes, don't you worry. One of the reasons I did Star Wars is because of my options it seemed the one which I could get the best antagonist from. Also, I have not played Skyrim, I am not old enough. Also, at the start of my FanFic I considered having Eragon being one of the books he had read, but I decided it would be more fun and interesting if he had to go through the process of finding out about the world.

For those of you who have played swktor, the General is Carth's grandfather (not that he was mentioned in-game, but anyway...)


	16. Chapter 16

**Double Lives – the multiverses collide**

**Chapter 16**

Darth Sinonic always enjoyed this part. Whenever they captured a Jedi, he would torture them until they began to hate him. Pain, anger and hate all gave the Dark Side its strength. Once they began to hate, they got a taste of the Dark Side to whet their appetite for power. Eventually they all broke.

He would have done it sooner or later anyway, if John had needed it to turn. But John just accelerated it and brought it upon himself sooner without giving himself the option of joining the Dark Side without torture. He chuckled. Well at least he was going to have some fun.

Darth Sinonic looked at the unconscious John. He had been shackled to a metal surface that had a 60⁰ slope. The shackles had no chains, so John could not move much at all. The massive torture room was one of the biggest roofed rooms in the building. It was big enough to fit even his other self comfortably, but he made his other self sleep outside the building, keeping watch and not accidently destroying anything.

The Sith lord shot a little bolt of electricity at the boy to wake him up.

"AAAH! Stop." Shouted John.

"I have not even started."

"Why are you doing this? Have you not zapped me enough already?"

"I shall teach you the meaning of pain, hate and anger, and those will awaken the kernel of darkness within you. When you join the side with all the power, it will be willingly, not because of a petty oath in the Ancient Language."

"Why don't you just tell me to? It will save you the effort…"

"It's more fun this way."

"You monster!"

"That's the spirit. Let us get started. No passing out this time."

The screams and shouts of pain filled the halls and passages of the Sith base, haunting the Sith. Especially those fallen Jedi who had suffered a similar fate. After shocking John for a few hours, with sporadic breaks so the teen did not fall unconscious, Darth Sinonic stopped and asked "How you feeling?"

"I hate you."

"Good. Don't forget those feelings by tomorrow. As much as I would like to continue all night, I need sleep for the days to come. We won't wake up anywhere different than where we fall asleep. No changing worlds or positions tonight. Understood?"

"…yes…master…" John begrudgingly said. Hate and dislike was clear in his voice. "Are you going to let me down?"

"No, you shall sleep there where you are. No trying to escape."

John just sighed, he could not even cry any more. Sinonic looked as he hung his head, trying to sleep. He kept his face of indifference on, and then walked out, heading to his room. He arrived and after getting ready, he climbed onto his soft mattress and under the duvets. He fell asleep quickly.

* * *

John fell to an extremely uncomfortable sleep after what seemed like hours of hanging on the uncomfortable torture rack. Eventually he fell asleep due to pure tiredness, his head hanging down since there was no place for him to rest it comfortably.

* * *

He awoke standing. He felt dirt beneath his bare feet. He looked around. He was in a barren, rocky landscape. Nearby was a building that looked much like what he had guessed the Sith one did from the outside. He wondered what he was doing there. Darth Sinonic had told him to not make any teleporting happen when he fell asleep. He had, of course, had to obey.

He walked towards the building, wondering why that had happened. He would just take a peek in then go try his luck starving to death in the barren landscape. Only there was one problem; the building seemed to get smaller as he got nearer. He also found it increasingly hard to walk upright. Eventually he could not stop himself from dropping to his hands and knees, except… he could 'stand' comfortably with his legs straight.

He took his attention off the building as he barely noticed something blue at the very bottom centre of his vision. He looked down, but the thing moved in perfect synchronisation with his face. He was getting creeped out. He decided to look at his arms and legs, wondering why they were feeling so strange.

What he beheld was a pair of scaly, clawed hind-legs and another fore-legs. _Fudge…_ he thought. He twisted his neck, trying to look at his back. He could turn his neck around with ease. He saw his scaly back with small spikes protruding at intervals along his spine. The spikes also went onto his… _tail…? _He also had wings. He lifted one hand claw to feel his face and elongated neck.

_I'm a dragon all right, but why? How? Is this another one of my powers, or just another funky dream? It has been getting hard to tell the difference between dreams and 'reality' lately…_ He fiddled around a bit; turning, stretching and chasing his tail. He used muscles he had never had before; his wings and tail. He didn't want to try fly yet, because he was not used to having wings and was worried about falling.

Unfortunately, the fun could not last forever, and he soon spotted a large group of figures exiting the building. _The Sith…_ he thought, walking towards them, ready for a fight. A shadow fell onto John. He looked up and saw a bigger, purple dragon diving at him. While he was three times the height of most of the Sith, That dragon was at least three times the height of him. He ran, trying to get out of the way of Barioth, but the massive dragon got his tail and bit down on it. John roared with pain.

The dragon Sith lord let go of his tail and pounced onto John, easily pinning him to the ground. John struggled in vain as the Sith came closer. Then an idea occurred to him _I somehow managed to turn into a dragon, rapidly growing in size. Who says I can't get bigger?_ He was not sure how, though… He closed his eyes and concentrated on the image of his dragon self, but much bigger. From the gasps in the direction of the Sith, he guessed it was working.

He opened his eyes, and Dragon-Sinonic was now a quarter of his size. He opened his mouth and let off a few blasts of fire at the dragon, watching the purple dragon dodge and swerve, flying away. John, despite himself had actually enjoyed that. He knew he shouldn't be enjoying it, but something just made him. He took a sweep of the ground with his tail, sending all the Sith flying, including Darth Sinonic. _I guess I'm not bound to him anymore either._ He thought. He begun wreaking havoc on the Sith; using fire, claw and tail. Then he was knocked down. He had forgotten about the other dragon, but now it was in his reach. He pinned it down. He knew he shouldn't, but hate for the Sith and Darth Sinonic spurred him on. He killed the other dragon, and then did the same to the few fleeing Sith that still lived.

After he had done the deed, the realisation of what he had just done dawned on him. He sat down and put his fore-feet to his face in shame. He had let the Dark Side take him. As he sat there, face covered in shame, he felt the ground beneath him moving and his body changing. He could no longer feel his tail or wings. His claws had been replaced with soft hands and his face also got more ovular. He was human again.

* * *

John's face was sore… and cold He sat up and looked down to see he had been sleeping on the floor. He was in the torture room, or what had once been the torture room. There were holes, cracks and scorch marks all over the walls, floors and even the roof. The torture rack was now a metal pancake, squashed flat to the floor, and most of the equipment he had seen in the room yesterday was badly damaged.

_Was it just a dream? Then what happened in here?_ He wondered. It had to have been a dream, there was quite a crowd of Sith at the entrance, either looking at the massive damages, or staring at him. He got up and walked towards them. All except one of the crowd moved away from him, as if afraid. The slightly faded memories of the dream haunting him.

_If I turned to the Dark Side in a dream, how can I resist Darth Sinonic's tortures without turning again… or am I already on the Dark Side? _Despite him telling himself that it was bad, he had enjoyed his dream-revenge. He felt a presence which he had barely noticed withdraw from his mind. It was not Ashikia, she was clearly scared of him now, but she still stayed in contact, trying to comfort him. She also knew he would never harm her, no matter how evil he got. Hurting her would be like hurting himself. Actually, from what Eragon had said, that would actually happen. One partner's pain was the other's.

The member of the crowd who had not moved away, Darth Sinonic, spoke "Well done, welcome to the Sith. Bow and receive your Sith title." John went on his one knee, his head hanging. "And you shall be known as Darth Corric. Rise, my apprentice."

John gloomily stood. He saw the other Sith still looked nervous, but they had relaxed somewhat and did come closer. They congratulated him on his freedom from the binding laws, rules and lies of the Light Side.

"Master?" John asked.

"Yes, Darth Corric?"

John flinched at the title, but continued, "What happened to the room?"

"The Dark Side is powerful. One will occasionally unintentionally use it if dreaming of a battle. I've wrecked my room more than once. Yet, I have not done anything of this scale. You are particularly powerful in the Force. Though, I still find it surprising how you managed this, barely being in tune with your own sensitiveness. Strange things happen overnight with you."

John just nodded. He knew it was hopeless to fight the Darkness, with so much of it surrounding him from the others, not just himself. He stopped resisting and the Darkness consumed him. Darth Corric was born.

* * *

Eragon turned from watching the streaks of light that were stars out the window and turned to face Grandmaster and the holograms of the Chancellor and the people from the modern world. The modern-worlders had been brought into the conversations because they knew much more about the other worlds than anyone else with them, seeing as they knew many of the same worlds he would know.

"Are you sure?" Eragon asked.

"Yes, I felt a shift in the Force. He is powerful. I sensed it from when I found him just outside my enclave when I woke." Tyrell answered.

"This is bad news. When I started training him in magic, he also had an affinity for it that I did not understand. He is…was not physically strong. Though, if what you tell me about the Force enhancing your movements, he will be very strong now. I don't know how we can save him either. It's-"

"I know how," a new voice interrupted with such suddenness that Tyrell unsheathed his lightsaber and swung it at its owner whom had materialised beside him. The woman merely deflected the blade of light with her hand and made it deactivate.

"Angela! What- How- Where?" said a shocked Eragon.

"You know h-" Tyrell asked, looking at his lightsaber.

"Ssh, he asked me," Angela interrupted again, "Eragon, as I have told you many times, I like to be where things are happening." She reached down and stroked the large cat walking around her legs.

Eragon shook his head, "But how did you get here? Did Sinonic make John add you? Or did he make you come of his own free will? And how did we not notice you until now?"

"Always with the questions. I thought in your 'old age' you would stop asking so many questions. It seems I was wrong."

Eragon rubbed his temples then said "Just answer me, please."

"Ok, since you asked nicely. I made myself come here. No aid from John needed. I am similar to John, in what I can do. Well, the world changing thing. Not much else. Good didn't have the time nor power to give me that. That's why John is going to be on the front lines. I was just the guardian."

"In English. Please. And no riddles either."

"I'd wait for John to tell you. No need to ruin the surprise."

"Angela, please." She was getting on Eragon's nerves.

"Fine, I hate spoilers, so I will just tell you what you need to know."

"I'm listening."

"You need to kill him."

"WHAT!" Tyrell interrupted the conversation, "What about getting Eragon and the others back to their worlds? And John's family?"

"Don't worry, that will be taken care of."

"By whom?" the hologram-Chancellor asked.

"Good. That is all you will need to know for now until John tells you. But, for my plan: You must focus all your firepower on John. You will never defeat the armies"

"Who is 'Good'?" Tyrell asked, "And how does it help killing him if the massive army will be on the loose."

"You don't need to know for now. And killing him, the army won't be able to go to other universes."

"But, what of this one?" the Chancellor asked, worried.

"Don't worry, Good has good a plan. Ha-ha. Even if the plan goes wrong, which it won't, what are a few trillion lives of one universe compared to the virtually infinite of the multiverse? But don't worry, it won't go wrong."

"And how am I supposed to believe you? Or trust you? Am I to put a whole galaxy of civilians at risk just because of one crazy lady?" the Chancellor asked.

Angela opened her mouth, probably to make a smart retort, but Eragon waved his hand at her to silence her. He spoke and said "Angela may seem crazy, but from what I've seen, what she says could be true."

"You trust her this much?"

Eragon sighed, and then said "Yes. She has always been mysterious in my encounters with her, but the races respect her. From what I understand, she has been seen by the Elves centuries before I met her. She also predicted my future. Except maybe the returning to Alagäesia thing, though that is depending on your interpretation. Anyway, as much of her trustworthiness I have seen, I am still not willing to believe her story straight away. I need some sort of proof. Angela?"

"Well, if getting from Alagäesia to here was not enough proof, let me think." She stood there, thinking a bit. "Well, besides for stuff that I used to defend the prison, I don't have much flashy stuff that would interest you. I have great control of magic, or this universe's equivalent: the Force. I can teleport inter-dimensionally, predict the future and a couple more things not worth mentioning. It's not fair, John gets the cool stuff. Then again, he has to fight on the front lines."

_Angela, you are not helping,_ Eragon said to her telepathically. He saw the others staring at her.

_Well, I'm being honest,_ she replied, "Ok, what do you want to see? I don't have flashy show-off stuff."

"Well, you did teleport here and deflect my Lightsaber with your bare hand… I can sense the Force in you… I can also tell you didn't lie." said Tyrell.

"I'll have to believe you three," said the Chancellor, "Do you mind predicting the future for us?"

"Not now. Good needs to store its energy for the purification. But I can tell you what I know. If you fail to kill John, Darth Corric as he has been dubbed, he will be able to travel the multiverse and keep gathering more armies and keep attacking. I can also tell you will not be able to defeat the armies they are going to gather tonight. But, if you kill John, the tides will turn. You will still suffer casualties, but the multiverses will be saved."

"That makes sense…" said the Chancellor, "But how will killing John save _this_ universe?"

"You'll see." Angela chuckled.

"Angela, please." Eragon was getting a bit annoyed.

"Trust me. Even if I you don't, killing John will still be best for everyone. Now, let us discuss tactics." Angela waved her hand at the computer from which the hologram of the Chancellor and co. The hologram of the people shrunk and shifted to the side. Another hologram appeared and Eragon watched as she manipulated the diagram to represent a building on a barren landscape. The rocky hills and mountains at the edge of the flatland in which the building was. "Ok, the best place for the artillery would be here." A dot appeared on the hills, raised and with a good vantage point. "The main forces will need to engage the main enemy forces. We will need a strike team of the dragon and Rider council members and Tyrell's best Jedi. You need to go take out John. If the main force goes for John, they will quickly realise what we want to do. The artillery batteries will thin out the enemy forces, but just before the strike team reaches Darth Corric and Darth Sinonic, an artillery bombardment would be useful."

"Angela, when did you visit there? And since when were you a tactician?" asked a surprised Eragon.

"Oh, I popped by just before giving Tyrell Omi-ren a fright. Here is where we should land over there."

"Sounds like a good plan," said Tyrell.

The Chancellor nodded and said, "I shall transmit the recording of the plan that somehow has arrived on my computer." He coughed, looking at Angela, then continued, "Thank you Angela, Eragon and Tyrell. Goodbye. I hope to see you again soon." The ship dropped out of hyperspace, the other Republic ships in sight from the bridge. Together, the fleet headed for the system where the signal had originated.

Tyrell went to the microphone for the intercom system that ran the ship. He activated it and announced to the crew "Prepare for battle."


	17. Chapter 17

Double Lives – the multiverses collide

Chapter 17

**A/N:** saphira-rocks, I understand and have been trying my best to keep it as simple as possible in non-inheritance fandoms without damaging the plot. I'm sorry if you don't understand everything. If there is something you don't understand, you could always search it on the wiki for the respective fandom. Google "wookieepedia" for the Star Wars stuff.

Mephyrlord, no, I am not Albert.

* * *

"They are coming, master. I sense it. Shall we gather our armies?" Darth Corric asked.

"Indeed. Let us go," replied Darth Sinonic.

Corric stayed silent for a bit then said "Ok. The Sith you asked me to take are going, none of my 'friends'. We will all wake up in the same vicinity. We shall be recruiting soldiers whose entire existence is devoted to fighting. There are many first person shooter games in my world. I've never played them before, but I have a fair idea of what they are like from people at school talking about them."

"You know the fandoms of your world better than me, of course. Let us go," said Sinonic, "Slytha."

* * *

Darth Morack stood up and stretched. They were at the edge of a forest, the road in front of them cutting through the landscape. It was a very hilly area with some kind of barricaded building further up the road. It was just in sight, and the guards around it couldn't see the Sith in the forest. Something about the way things looked was odd. It was quite realistic, but there were many little details that he couldn't find. The scenery also seemed a bit angular… Then he remembered they were in a 'game'.

Morack looked at the other five Sith who were also stirring. He saw Darth Sinonic and Darth Corric busy talking, probably discussing tactics. He growled softly with jealousy. Gone were the days where he was second in command. He had been replaced by a mere boy. The boy hadn't even duelled against him for the position, ignoring Sith tradition. The Sith did that to make sure that the strongest always lead. If Morack didn't know better, and about the oaths, he could have sworn that Sinonic was actually second in charge.

Morack would have challenged the child to a duel to the death if he hadn't known he would be beaten. Corric was extremely strong in the Force. To do that to the massive torture chamber, and while asleep… it was unthinkable. Morack doubted that even Sinonic could do something quite that destructive and still be able to walk right afterwards.

Morack was at least glad he was of high enough rank to be brought along on this mission.

Morack's festering thoughts were interrupted by Darth Sinonic clearing his throat for attention then announcing "We shall be walking straight to their front gates, Corric and I in front. We shall talk with them. Try not to hurt any of our soon-to-be army members unnecessarily. Understood?"

"Yes, master," chorused the four Sith who felt like they were just 'tagging along'.

They stepped out of the forest and walked towards the boom which was the entrance to the militia compound. As soon as the guards saw them, there was lots of shouting and they immediately opened fire, despite the Sith showing no hostile intent.

All six Sith unsheathed their lightsabers and swung for the bullets coming at them. Morack intended to deflect the shots into the ground, but was surprised when all he saw falling to the ground was molten metal. _Oh… Corric said it was like the 'modern world'. If this is what they are like, I hardly think they are modern, quite barbaric, actually._ He sighed, melting more bullets with his saber.

When they neared the boom, Sinonic said a few words of that 'Ancient Language' and all the soldier's guns flew away and the soldiers started shouting about not being able to move. When they finally, quieted down, a short, black-haired one asked "Why don't you just kill us? The players always do that. And why do you look so strange?"

"We are not here to hurt you. We want to recruit you," Sinonic said.

"Recruit us? For what?" the soldier asked.

"For a winnable war. No more hopeless defending against the onslaught of players. We are going to take over the galaxy," replied Corric, "In another universe, of course." He nodded to Sinonic, who ended the spell keeping the soldiers still. The soldiers didn't try running or shooting at them this time.

The soldier who had spoken seemingly just noticed for the first time that Darth Corric was merely a teenager "Is this some kind of prank? I've seen many crazy mods, but none like this one. You look very realistic," said the soldier, staring at Corric.

"This is no prank or 'mod'. Take us to our commanding officer and we shall discuss the terms of us hiring you," interrupted Sinonic

So, the Sith were escorted to the bunker where the General of the militia was. After a lengthy discussion, the bearded General said that they would do it for free, as long as they got freedom to do what they like after helping capture the galaxy. A while later, all the soldiers in the compound vanished, along with the Sith.

The group repeated the process in as many first person shooter games as Corric could think of. Most of the time, they had a similar result and moved on to the next game. The zombies, unfortunately, didn't have enough brains to be mind-controlled, let alone convinced to join the exponentially growing Sith force. Corric and Sinonic exterminated them with ease.

After mustering a force of at least fifty thousand strong, Corric sent them to Star Wars while the seven Sith, Darth Sinonic decided he would bring with his dragon self as well from the on, continued into other genres. They soon passed a million members of their 'army'.

* * *

Darth Corric covered his ears as the screech pierced the air. He had taken the Sith to the edge of Mordor, before Suaron or Saruman got defeated. Once again he thought of how the bad guys usually got defeated, but that was the heroes of one fandom versus the villains of the same fandom. Now, it would be the heroes of two fandoms and some kids from the real world versus the villains from about a hundred fandoms.

Once the skull-splitting screeches from the Nazgûl's pets had stopped, Corric concentrated on the leader of the ring wraiths and his flying mount. Using a combination of magic and the Force, he brought them to a halt and floated them down to the ground. "Stop attacking," Corric ordered, "I can immobilise you all as easily I did your leader, but I don't want to waste the energy unless I need to."

He watched as the leader and his mount struggled to try get out of the meagre space he had confined them to, then they realized they couldn't and they stopped struggling. The leader issued one final scream which Corric guessed was an order to stand down, since the rest of the Nazgûl stopped attacking and landed.

Corric tried his best to keep himself from panting or otherwise showing that he did not have enough energy to restrain all six. He glanced back at Morack, who was being tended to on the ground, claw-shaped gashes across his right arm and side. This was the first world any of the Sith themselves had sustained major injuries, though some of their recruits had sustained injuries in the zombie-infested world of Resident Evil that they had visited just before deciding not to try any more zombie games.

Darth Sinonic had started running out of energy a few worlds back, so they had lingered for a while longer in each world they conquered and Sinonic trained Corric in the Force, magic and sword/saber -play. Corric had also spent time with Ashikia. He knew she did not like what he was doing or thinking, but they were partners of heart and mind, so they would help each other.

He marched up to the leader of the nine Black Riders and said "Take us to see Suaron and Saruman, I have an offer for them."

"Our massster iss the one who makess the offersss," came the icy, hissing voice from the seemingly empty hood, "but, he could alwayss use more mercenariess. Now, let uss go."

"We shall discuss that with him, lead us to him. We want to talk to him," Corric replied, letting the Nazgûl and their mounts free. Corric saw one of the other riders dismount and walk towards the leader and they spoke softly to each other. John whispered a few words of the Ancient Language to overhear their conversation.

"…trusst them?"

"I can ssense darkness from them, they are definitely not aligned with the elvess, dwarves or humanss. Though, there is ssomething different about the child."

"Of course, why would a child be with a group of mercinariess, let alone their sspokesman? And he iss powerful, powerful enough to stop all nine of uss at once, or sso he sayss."

"Yess, but I was talking about hiss aura. There is a light hidden in the darknesss. We sshall have to be wary of him."

The ring wraith who had questioned the leader nodded and headed back to its winged mount. Corric ended the spell.

"Normally we would not offer thiss, but we have other thingss we urgently need to attend to, like the attack on Helm'ss Deep. Four of uss will take one of you each. I ssee you have your… pet dragonss. I think the big iss big enough to fit three."

Four Sith rode with four of the Black Riders while Corric, Ashikia and elf-Sinonic rode on dragon-Sinonic. Flying, they reached the castle that was the housing of Sauron, much faster than walking.

While the flaming eye stared down on them from above, Corric and his group were met by Saruman just outside the castle's gate. He looked annoyed at having to waste his time talking to _more_ mercenaries, he didn't even bother with introductions. "So, what can you do? Are there more of you? And what kind of payment do you want?" he asked straight away. Corric guessed he had been recruiting a lot of mercenaries recently and was getting tired of it. _Wait till he sees how many _I've_ been recruiting._

"I and Darth Sinonic are good at magic, and all of use, save the dragons, can use something called the Force. There are many, _many_ more of us. And as for payment, we would like to hire you. I understand that Sauron cannot come with, due to his lack of a mobile body, but this is a great opportunity for you and the Nazgûl," Corric responded.

"We shall discuss the recruiting later, though I highly doubt you have a cause more important than dominating Middle Earth. First of all, you say you are skilled in magic. I challenge you to a friendly magic duel. I want to see how competent you are in magic. Where is your staff?"

Corric just said "I don't need one," and walked some distance away, then stood at the ready. He did not know enough words in the Ancient Language to participate in a duel, so he would have to do it without words. He knew using magic without words was dangerous if one lost concentration. Luckily for him a big part of his training had been on his concentration, since it was important to using the Force, magic and even when fighting.

He waited for Saruman to make the first move, which was a fireball forming at the top of the wizard's staff then flying at Darth Corric's face. Corric immersed himself in the flow of magic as he had many times recently and he willed a slab of stone to fly out of the ground and into the path of the fireball. It and the fireball both shattered and the shards flew in Corric's direction because of the fireball's momentum.

The shards curved to the side a meter in front of Corric's face and started spinning around him in an orbit around his head. After orbiting for a few seconds, they broke the orbit and flew straight back at Saruman who held out his staff and the shards fell to the ground as dust.

The sides of Corric's mouth twitched, forming a slight smile. _Let's show off when beating him… I definitely want to recruit him and the Nazgûl,_ he thought.

Corric defended against more of Saruman's attacks while thinking of the flashiest way he could defeat the old wizard.

Suddenly, the white wizard pointed his staff at Corric and Corric found himself flying backwards and upwards. He tried making an invisible barrier behind him, but when he hit it, it cushioned his speed as he had planned, but Saruman's magic made it feel like Corric was on a very soft and massive pillow, being crushed to death. So he let the barrier go and instead tried blocking Saruman's spell with his own magic. It worked and he began falling to the ground. That was no problem, he simply willed his descent to slow and it did. He stayed floating in the air and made another invisible shield in preparation for the next attack.

_That is a good idea,_ He thought. He dropped the shield that he had made and watched a massive fireball moving at high-speed towards him. He appeared to catch it on his bare, outstretched hand, but actually it was floating a couple centimetres above his hand. He was using magic to shield himself from the intense heat. The energy that the spell was using was, not surprisingly, a lot. He had to get rid of the fireball soon, so he threw it back at the wizard. He used magic to deflect it to the side of the Saruman and it hit the ground, but instead of exploding it tunnelled into the ground.

Saruman looked at the hole and then, dismissing the vanished fireball, he prepared for another attack on Corric. That was his mistake. Eight points in a circle around Saruman exploded into fire and Saruman was surrounded by pillars of fire. His staff was yanked away from him by an invisible force, flying into the air and landing in Corric's hand.

Corric grinned triumphantly, and then dropped to the ground in front of the defeated wizard and asked "What do you say?"

"You're hired." Saruman chuckled, probably thinking of what devastation Corric and his band of mercenaries could wreck upon the enemies of Sauron.

Corric extinguished the flames and handed the staff back then said, "I want to hire you, not the other way around."

"What is more important than conquering middle earth?"

"Conquering the multiverse."

"The multiverse?"

"Your world is just a story in the one I come from, as is theirs," he motioned to the Sith behind him, "I have the ability to travel between each story, each universe, and bring others with."

"And you expect me and Sauron to believe that nonsense?"

"Yes. In your world, there are only five proper wizards. How, then am I powerful enough to defeat you? And dragons in your world cannot be tamed either, and they are very rare, yet we have two. Tamed, at that. We have equipment non-existent in your world. I know how your story ends if we had not come, Frodo Baggins reaches Mount Doom and then decided not to destroy the ring. Gollum tries to take it from him and falls into the lava. The Ring is destroyed, along with your army. Saruman, you are defeated and trapped in your tower by the tree-ents long before this, though. But, if you come with us, we can come back later with many, many more armies and defeat them instead."

"Ok, well, then. How would you take us with?"

"Each time I go to sleep I, and everyone I choose to take with, switch worlds."

Saruman nodded then looked up at the large fiery eye above them that was watching. A voice that sent shivers down Corric's spine came from above. It was in a language unknown to him. Then Saruman responded in the same language, but in his voice, the language sounded less alien. Corric still didn't understand it, though.

"Will you be able to take Sauron? And once you have done with your conquest, won't the enemy have already destroyed the ring?"

"No and no, from what I have seen, time only passes in the world I am in. Also, I am not able to bring entire buildings."

The two communicated in the strange language again and then Saruman said "Ok, I and the Nazgûl shall come with."

"Good, as I've told all our other forces, you know your strategies best. All I'm asking you to do is wreak havoc on the ones called the Republic. They shall be arriving in space ships soon after you wake up." Corric added the ten to his mental list then turned to Sinonic and said, "I think we have enough soldiers for the battle, let us go." He lay down to avoid getting injured when Sinonic put him to sleep.

"Slytha."

* * *

Eragon was nervous. He was watching the screens full of flickering symbols and dials, even though he had no idea what they meant.

"The planet is in scanning range, sir," the officer in charge of the radar and scanners announced, "We are picking up roughly two million sentients down there."

Eragon gasped and exclaimed "WHAT?! How are we going to defeat them?"

"That is the population of a large city, in this universe, it is not actually that many," said Tyrell, "We have got about the same amount of troops here, though I assume they are going to have many different creatures that we have never heard of or seen before. We are going to cut it close. I think that Angela's plan is best. Focus on killing John and then they won't be able to gather more armies. We might just survive this, though we will be cutting it close…"


	18. Chapter 18

**Double Lives – the multiverses collide**

**Chapter 18**

Eragon gritted his teeth. A sea of creatures had just come into sight; a sea that was broken occasionally by islands. The islands were larger creatures, or machines, than the rest.

In the back of his mind, he knew they had just as many members of their army present, but he was still quite nervous.

"Let's go kick some Sith butt." Eragon turned to see Angela, who was looking quite excited.

Eragon almost asked whether she was afraid, but then he decided not to dampen her happy spirits.

"Well, I'm only afraid if you don't kill John."

"Wait, what?"

"That's what you were going to ask me, right?"

"Yes, but I didn't sense you touching my mind."

"So? Don't you already know I have skills? You've seen them. Not even being knocked unconscious and dragged into a secret door in the wall under Dras-Leona could stop me for more than a little while."

"True… but just stay out if my head, please."

"Hey, you had that face on that you always have when you are thinking about a question. I wanted to see if I could answer it. But ok, I will."

A loud wailing noise sounded across the interior of the ship. Eragon jumped from surprise when it started. He saw many of the people in the room leaving. _Oh, I guess that is a siren, _he thought. Tyrell had told him earlier that the siren meant they were landing and were to head down to the 'hangar'.

He followed the other people down to the 'hangar bay' and stood to one side of the exit ramp, along with the other generals, commanders and the kids.

The massive hanger bay was split into three sections, two symmetrical areas on either side. In the centre was a slightly smaller 'passage' with blue force fields instead of walls. That was where the aircraft exited to fight. The blue force field was to keep the air in, if they were fighting in space.

The ranks of soldiers stretched to the other side of the massive room. It even made the Riders' houses look like ones in John's world. On either side of the infantry there were various machines, such as tanks, being piloted by more soldiers.

As planned, the cruisers landed on the opposite side of the valley to the ocean of enemies. The ramps opened and ground troops disembarked while the aircraft took off through the airlock in the centre.

The first several rows of soldiers marched off the ramp with no problems. All of a sudden, after the first ten rows had disembarked; the ones in front fell over, bloody holes in them. Then the next row. Then the next.

"Fall back!" shouted Tyrell, even though they were anyway. The sixth and seventh rows got shot while they were scrambling back into the ramp.

"What was that? I thought we were out of range…" asked Eragon.

"They must have snipers," Tyrell replied, "we can't bring out our own ones without them getting shot… we haven't disembarked yet, and we are already running into trouble."

"How can we get rid of the snipers?" Frank asked.

Tyrell thought for a while, then lifted his commlink up to his mouth and said, "All aircraft, use your thermal scanners. We have a serious problem of snipers."

The leader of one of the aircraft squads responded and said, "Sorry sir, we are currently engaged in air combat with nine of what appears to be Riders, but those are some messed-up dragons."

Eragon heard a high pitched scream from outside. It was faint, but it still made him cover his ears and his skin crawl. In the midst of it he also thought he heard a few explosions.

The awful sound ended and Eragon removed his hands from his ears. He saw the elves also standing up, looking quite worried. There were also a few soldiers, of races he didn't know, who seemed to have heard it too. Everyone else was just staring at them awkwardly.

"Elves have much more sensitive ears than the other races I know." Eragon quickly explained to Tyrell the sound and how he thinks the explosions, which everyone had heard, were a few pilots who had been too close to the source of the sound and covered their ears instead of flying.

Tyrell contacted the bridge and told them to use the cruiser's own cannons to target any enemy heat signatures that were away from the main Sith force. Once the snipers had been taken care of, the turbo cannons started firing at the Dark Riders.

The Republic army once again started disembarking from the three space cruisers. This time, they didn't die as soon as they stepped out of the ship. They immediately got to work setting up the artillery and forming ranks for a charge against the Sith. But the Sith had other ideas. They knew their snipers had been killed, so they immediately began charging at the Republic, not giving them time to set up.

The republic soldiers ran towards the Sith, the one that were on the ships did so as soon as they came off the ship. A cry of "For the Republic!" resounded from the Republic army. Some of the slower machines, like the tanks, brought up the rear while the Artillery crews continued working.

So that they could get into the action and help the army as soon as possible, the Dragon Riders rode their dragons out of the 'airlock' and towards the Sith. There were still a couple Dark Riders in the air. The dragon riders decided to 'take care' of them first, since the ground forces needed air support from the fighter planes

Then the armies met, a laser show emitted from the Republic, but much fewer coming from the Sith. Yet, there were plenty of casualties on both sides. Many of the Sith army were using older fashioned weapons that shot prices of metal, instead of laser.

The forward ranks of each army clashed and various types of melee weapons were used. Mainly vibro-blades and Lightsabers were used by the republic. A vast assortment was used by the Sith, from axes to zaps (magic).

"Generals, the artillery is ready," a voice announced through Eragon's and Tyrell's commlinks.

Tyrell replied, "Good, clear sectors E3 through C25 in a line on front of us."

"Sir, yes, sir!"

A massive explosion at the edge of the enemy ranks was the signal. The small strike team of twelve Jedi, four Riders and dragons advanced. _I hope the others are going to be ok, fighting on the front line,_ thought Eragon, _I hope_ we_are going to be ok…_

At first they made easy progress, the Riders' wards deflecting bullets shot at them back at their owners. Anyone smart enough not to shoot at them was quickly incinerated by at least one of the four dragons.

"Magic takes the fun out of battles," one Jedi complained, after a while of walking, watching enemies fall like reeds before them.

"Not if both sides have it," a voice objected from on front of them. Eragon saw an old man in white robes with a black and white staff. To his right, there were five figures in black robes and four to his left. "You may have destroyed the Nazgûl's mounts, but they themselves are immortal," the old man then looked at the robed figures to either side of him, "Time to get of the Republic's 'generals'." The average soldiers around them seemed to back away, and continue pushing forward, eager to fight some enemies they could actually kill.

Eragon yelled and charged, glad for a challenge finally. The rest joined in. The old man began shooting fireballs and chunks of rock at Eragon, all of which Eragon's wards deflected. Then the white wizard motioned forward with his staff. Eragon and the other two-legs went flying backwards. Eragon sensed through his connection to her, that Saphira was slowly sliding backwards, her claws digging furrows in the ground.

Arya's voice cut through his thoughts, broadcasting to the whole strike team,_ I remember Cornelius mentioning Saruman and the Nazgûl. These must be them. Apparently the Nazgûl can be killed by a woman. You men, keep them busy. And whatever you do, don't get the slightest cut from their enchanted blades. Dragons, blast the wizard now. That will distract him so we can get up. Be careful with the wizard as well, he is of a race more powerful and magical than even the elves._

Saphira and the other the dragons blasted four pillars of flame at Saruman. The temperature there must have been volcanic. Eragon found he could stand up again, so he did. As the smoke cleared, Eragon beheld a magical force field surrounding the ten, originating from Saruman's staff. It disappeared and the sides were instead replaced by a thick wall water which dropped onto and mostly evaporated on the red-hot rock around them.

An extremely loud high-pitched scream made Eragon fall to the ground, writhing in pain and covering his ears. Even the dragons put their paws to the sides of their heads.

_Stop!_ Saphira roared. She took a swipe at the figures in black with her paw. It didn't hit them, but the Nazgûl jumped back and the screaming stopped.

At last they finally drew the black swords and advanced. Eragon started getting up. He looked up and was met with an empty hooded robe staring down at him, sword poised to strike.

_**Crunch**_ went the armour and robe under the massive blue spiked tail. _Thank you, Saphira._

_My pleasure, little one._

Eragon got up and swung his sword at a Nazgûl who had just beheaded a rather unfortunate Jedi. His blow was parried, the black cape swishing.

They duelled in a flurry of blows. Eragon feigned to the left but swung Brisingr, his sword, upwards. The blow was blocked. Each blow he dealt to the wraith was blocked. _Come on, come on,_ Eragon thought. He decided to use his elven speed to the max, launching a flurry of blows.

Eventually one hit, a stab that pierced the spot where the wring-wraith's heart should have been. Nothing happened, besides Brisingr being pulled from his grasp.

The wraith didn't seem to care about the metal impaling it. It merely raised its sword in order to finish Eragon off.

Eragon had other ideas. "Brisingr!" He shouted. The wraith ran around, screaming in that high pitched sound, but this time it didn't make Eragon feel like he was doomed. _One thing Arya forgot to mention is that they hate fire,_ Eragon announced to the remaining members of the strike team.

The dragons inhaled deeply and blew, tongues of flame caught onto the Nazgûl. The wraiths ran away screaming. Before they could retreat too far, Arya and the female Jedi present each took a slice at each of the ring wraiths with their weapons. Once they had been fatally injured by the women, they seemed to… implode…

Arya pulled Brisingr from a crumpled piece of armour and charred robe. Eragon walked up to Arya and reached for his sword, which she was offering to him. Once he had it, he briefly kissed her and then turned his attention to the wizard they still had to fight.

Now that the Nazgûl were gone, Saruman didn't worry about using fireballs. One came flying at his face and Eragon ducked, sensing the intense heat pass nearby over him. He had wards, but there was no point in needlessly draining them, because he might need them later. Eragon said a sentence in the Ancient Language, intended to get rid of the white wizard's staff and pin him to the ground. Nothing happened.

"Oh, was something supposed to happen? Darth Sinonic went to the trouble of putting wards around me so that none of your magic can affect me. Neither can your blades. Not that I need them, having my own magic."

Eragon just smiled and reached his mind out towards the wizard. "Guard me," he told his friends. As Eragon reached Saruman's consciousness, he hit a solid wall. The old wizard had remarkably strong mental defences. The wizard was also clearly not elven or human, nor any race Eragon knew. His mind was stranger than even the Ra'zacs'.

"Oh, and I don't need wards protecting me mentally," Saruman mocked him.

Eragon briefly withdrew from Saruman's mind so that he could tell Saphira his plan in private, then he cut off his connection from her and started launching mental attacks at the wizard. He only managed to dent Saruman's mental barrier. All of a sudden, the barrier vanished, taken away by Saruman himself. This caused Eragon to pause, wondering if it was a trap. It was, but in a different way than he was expecting.

As Eragon was pondering whether to attack Saruman's mind or not, he himself was attacked with a massive force. Eragon was caught by surprise, and so Saruman gained a lot of 'ground' before Eragon could mount a decent defence. Eragon retaliated violently. Now he was not just fighting for his life, he was fighting for control of his mind. That extra training, mentally sparring with Umaroth and the other Eldunarí had paid off: He was not crushed instantly.

Yet, he was still slowly falling back, into the deeper recesses of his mind, all the while slowing the unstoppable wall of mental force from the wizard. He slowly lost his sight, and control of his limbs. The physical world faded. He was faintly aware of his limp body falling to the ground.

That's when Saphira struck. She seized control of the wizard's mind while most of his attention was focussed on destroying Eragon, and the rest on holding his staff making the force field protecting him from hacking blades, singing sabres, blasting fire, scratching claws and crushing tails.

Saruman quickly reacted, quickly beating Saphira to a retreat. Eragon had known from the moment he touched the wizard's mind that neither he nor Saphira could beat the wizard alone. Nor could two separate people of the same mental strength as Eragon even beat Saruman. But he and Saphira weren't separate. They were Dragon and Rider. They were one.

Eragon and Saphira's minds melded, and they attacked Saruman's mental wall, corroding it slowly but steadily. Eventually they broke through, and forced the wizard to drop his staff. Just in time for a clean cut from Tyrell.

Eragon opened his eyes to find Arya leaning over him, looking very worried. "Well, I'm glad that is over," He said.

Arya softly punched him in the shoulder and said "Don't do that to me, Eragon. I thought you had died."

"Hey, are you two love birds going to help here? The Sith, the actual ones with lightsabers, have taken note of our little skirmish. They are headed right this way."

"Young Jolee Bindo is right," said Eragon. He got up and smiled at Arya then Saphira. "Here goes…"

The Jedi, Riders and dragons marched towards the Sith, the stragglers of the Sith force moving out of the way of both parties approaching each other. A brisk walk turned to a jog. A jog turned to a yelling sprint.

Arcs of electricity jumped from the hands of some Sith, to be caught on the Lightsabers of the Jedi. Dragons breathed out jets of flame at the Sith, those curved around the Sith. Then the groups collided.

Eragon swung his sword at the Sith in front of him, only to get his blow blocked. Though, Eragon quickly cut him down. He was a good enough swordsman to beat two wild dragons, a simple Sith was no match for him.

Though, from the cries of pain around him, it was for a couple Jedi. And a Rider. The Sith were not dumb, and had quickly realised they needed to attack single Dragons and Riders in groups. Tasoula fell over, multiple lightsaber wounds marring her skin. Her orange dragon roared and swiped at the group of Sith. They jumped remarkably high and landed on top of the orange dragon, dispatching him before he could kill more than a couple Sith in revenge.

_Come together, so they can't pick us off one by one!_ Eragon broadcasted to his allies that were still living. The strike team grouped together, shoulder to shoulder, fending off the Sith together. The Riders cast spells as well, but most were blocked by wards around the Sith. There were several Sith deaths, then a loud shout was heard and the Sith Force-jump out of reach, "Stop! We will duel them."

John, Burkhart and Barioth approached. The rest of the Sith stepped back, forming a half-circle. They also ceased fighting the Jedi, who didn't pursue them.

Burkhart, or rather Darth Sinonic, said, "I challenge you to a three verses three fight to the death. This is best way that the _worthy_ group shall suffer minimum casualties while the other is destroyed. Which three of you shall be brave enough to accept our challenge?"

Eragon spoke the name of the ancient language (of course he still had that memory-erase spell) and cleared John of his oaths to Sinonic. "John, you are no longer bound to Sinonic. Turn from this madness."

"Madness? Madness, you say? First of all, my name is Darth Corric. And second, all that you have done is granted me more freedom. Sinonic has shown me true power, and you shall soon observe it first-hand. Now, answer the challenge."

Eragon silently stepped forward, neither feeling not hate nor condescendence for John, but sympathy. He was followed by Saphira. He looked back at the other two Riders and their dragons. Arya walked forward, standing beside Eragon and Saphira. Eragon smiled at her, and then raised his sword. The Jedi, Telankus and two dragons stepped back, forming a quarter of a circle.

"Very well," Sinonic said and ignited a crimson lightsaber in each hand.

Barioth pounced onto Saphira like a leopard onto a deer. Except, this deer fought back. And it was larger than the panther.

While Saphira and Barioth rolled around on the ground, fighting, Eragon and Arya engaged Sinonic and John in combat. Eragon fought Sinonic, while Arya fought the less experienced and_ hopefully_ therefore less dangerous John. Their swords and sabers clashed for less than half a minute, then Eragon and Arya found themselves being Force-pushed backwards.

Eragon sent his thoughts to Arya as the got up and blocked their opponents' blows. _It seems they are going to play dirty. I guess that means we can use magic as well. I'll take John this time; there is…something… about his magic._

Brisingr and John's Lightsaber struck each other over and over. John, moved with speed that surprised Eragon, but since Eragon was half-elf himself, he was able to keep up with John's Force-enhanced blows. At intervals, one would release a spell at the other, quickly to be countered by the other.

Eragon hardly needed to think about it as he fought. Slice up, stab left, block a swing, feign to the right… They fought for ages, Eragon lost track of the time, focussing on anticipating John's next move or spell. They were about equally matched, it seemed.

At long last, someone died; Saphira was able to kill Barioth. Her tail came very useful in squashing Sinonic. However, when it came to John it was a different story.

As Saphira's tail swung towards John, words of the Ancient Language flowed out of his mouth. Eragon, Saphira and Arya were shot backwards as if from a catapult, and then were brought to a sudden halt in mid-air, frozen. Eragon hurriedly spoke the name of the Ancient Language in his mind, along with the counter-spell. He dropped to the ground and threw his sword at John, while he was still unprepared, another spell to guide it.

An expression of shock and horror crossed his face, as John looked down at the brightsteel blade impaling him. He tipped to one side, about to fall over, and then a bright white light burst from the wound, causing Eragon to cover his eyes.

When he lowered his hand form his eyes, all Eragon could say was "He's gone…" There was no body; all that was there was Brisingr, clean of all the gore from the battle. The world around him seemed to go in slow motion. He cries of the Sith as they rushed to fight seemed as if heard from a mile away…

* * *

**A/N**: I hope you found the chapter interesting. Please review, I always like getting feedback. Feel free to favourite or subscribe to my story.


End file.
